The ACT Party's new policy aimed at reducing prisoners' sentences does not match up with its previous hard-line policies, the Labour Party says
Prison bars, hands, generic Photo: 123RF
In a new policy announced yesterday ACT said prisoners should be given time off their sentences for learning to read and write.
Labour's corrections spokesperson Kelvin Davis said the policy had merit on the surface because too many people were being imprisoned.
But he said the ACT Party also introduced the three-strikes policy, which was about locking people up.
"It's sort of counter-intuitive for them to be saying 'well let's reduce prison sentences' but again without any real detail around the policy it's really hard to measure whether this policy is actually going to make a difference or not."
Kelvin Davis said the programmes already running in prisons needed more funding.
ACT Party leader David Seymour said the policy would be a bottom-line in any coalition deal.
Mr Seymour said the rehabilitation of prisoners was crucial and the policy would be part of any coalition arrangement, if ACT were in a position to be part of the government after September's general election.
He said he had spoken with the Prime Minister about the policy and Bill English was open to the idea.
David Seymour giving his keynote address at the party conference in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Demelza Leslie
A corrections commentator said the ACT Party was trying to please too many people with its prison policies.
Author and researcher Jarrod Gilbert said the idea of cutting prison sentences should be applauded, but the hard-line three-strikes policy fuelled high incarceration rates.
"We've got to balance prison policy between a punitive approach which punishes people for what they do wrong but also assists those that require help to change their lives and obviously that's not just in the individual's benefit to change but in wider society's benefit, not only through cost but through reducing victims of crime."
Jarrod Gilbert said support for those coming out of prison was urgently needed to help reduce recidivism.
A veteran prison reform lobbyist said releasing prisoners early if they learnt literacy skills would be a problem.
Kim Workman, a former head of Corrections who is a research associate at Victoria University's Institute of Criminology, said any effort to teach literacy and numeracy to prisoners should be supported.
But he said the policy would be unfair on prisoners who can't join in lessons.
"Twenty percent of the prisoners for a start, have brain and head injuries and are incapable of taking part in those programmes, 40 percent have mental health issues. So you're really only looking at a small proportion of the prison community who are able to leave the prison early."