Local Focus: Whanganui candidates talk about keeping people out of prison

"Things could be done better," says Harete Hipango talking about her own National Party.

The Whanganui MP and National Party candidate is passionate about prisons, having been a criminal lawyer and working with Māori offenders before entering Parliament.

"Some of the things that could be done much better in the National Party, my advice to them is looking not only about the prison numbers, but it's about our people who go into prison, the access to the programmes."

She tells Local Focus her personal views on excessive use of remand, and lack of support for inmates after being released.

Her words are echoed by Labour candidate Steph Lewis.

"What the evidence tells us is that locking people up and throwing away the key, a more punitive driven approach, doesn't work." Lewis said. She describes how she would improve prisons.

Green candidate Alan Clay says we need to rethink how we approach law and order.

"We've got a referendum in this election which is a perfect example," he said. "We've got the legalisation and control of cannabis referendum which will take that medicine out of the hands of criminals and regulate it so that it's healthy for society and not bad for society."

Also standing in the Whanganui electorate:
• Jonathan Marshall for the New Conservatives
• Heather Marion Smith for Social Credit
• Charlotte Weber for Advance NZ
• and Hillary Kieft as an independent

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