Einstein's definition of insanity is when you repeat the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result.
It seems strange that we continue to believe prisons are an effective method of reducing crime, when studies show it clearly isn't.
Newly-minted Prime Minister Bill English recently announced a
$1 billion investment into our prison system. There was headline news of incarceration rates exceeding an unprecedented 10,000.
Having experience with close friends and family being in and out of the prison system, I know that it is a vicious cycle. The Government continues to throw hardened gang members, poverty-stricken youths and other offenders, who lack a basic education, in close proximity together.
Prison perpetuates the issue simply by association - making the problem worse. Since 2010 prisoner-on-prisoner violence spiked astronomically, and has more than doubled since 2014.
There are very few paths to enable education, and to gain skills outside prison. When National tried to "up-skill" prisoners it led to menial jobs where they were paid less than half of the minimum wage and they were ousted as non-prisoners from their jobs.
National passed a new law last week - The Substance Addiction Act - which allows far easier access to rehabilitation services by empowering third parties, with the go-ahead by a specialist, to place people suffering from severe addiction into health services.
It's a great start, but there's a catch. Only four approved rehabilitation centres operate across New Zealand, and they're full. There's been no funding to address this new demand that we desperately need to meet.
Our "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mentality is failing, and Hawke's Bay is feeling it with an increase in crime and recidivism.
The regional prison offers a variety of different diplomas, but the available slots are frequently less than 10 prisoners. Hawke's Bay is held up as a model in comparison to other prisons across the country, and we're still lacking substantial results.
The national statistics are abysmal, 41 per cent of Maori and 31 per cent of Europeans are back in prison within two years. National claims to have decreased recidivism by 12 per cent, which fell back to 8 per cent recently. It's a small decrease when you compare it to the extraordinary rates we started with.
There is a simple solution to New Zealand's increasing prison population - increase funding to rehabilitation.
Te Tikoranga, which deals with Maori re-offending, has made substantial strides along with Mike Williams and the Howard League, who specialise in educating prisoners. Williams makes compelling arguments, saying that over 60 per cent of Maori enter prison with no basic literacy skills, and that 65 per cent of Maori enter prison with driving offences.
Wouldn't it be more effective to spend $1bn on bringing basic literacy to over half of our prisoners who can't read?
More than 80 per cent of crime in New Zealand is drug and alcohol related. Surely it makes sense to treat this as a health issue as well as a criminal one.
The NZ Drug Foundation has suggested creating a network which deals with corrections and health services, and screening people as soon as they are arrested to pre-empt the life of crime prison exacerbates. A system like this would reduce the 210 arrests made per week in New Zealand for drug offences.
These are a few services who are doing great work, preventing crime before it happens, or making sure that there are platforms created for people caught up in our failed system to succeed. That's where our $1bn should go, not towards making new beds for people in a culture where they're more likely to be sleeping there again quite soon.
