Expert warning on 'get tough' rules

BY PAT BOOTH

OPINION: Tougher, longer sentences could actually cause more crime, particularly among young Maori, according to figures produced by worried Auckland mental health planners.

They passed on those figures and their deep concerns last year while the government was drafting its controversial "three strikes and you could be in for life" jailing plan.

Already coping with New Zealand's terrible record of having the second worst imprisonment pattern of all OECD countries - only the United States tops our rate of 200 people behind bars in every 100,000 - the experts fear things are going to get even worse.

These experts say overseas experience shows mass jailing comes at a price.

The loss of men - often fathers - strips wages, salaries and family structures from already poor, vulnerable and struggling communities.

American calculations suggest there is a "tipping point" somewhere between jailing rates of 320 to 495 per 100,000 of population.

Beyond that, the net effect is that crime increases long term.

That ratio worsens social conditions for struggling families normalising jail and denying at-risk boys access to their fathers, causing them to offend more.

Figures from the United Kingdom support that fear. There, long-term effects of a father's imprisonment mean sons' crimes go on until they are 40.

The key fact for New Zealand: That Maori jail rate of 500 per 100,000 already tops that US "tipping point" figure.

The obvious outcome: A policy of mass jailing for relatively less-serious offences will increase crime, especially by Maori.

These figures come from a paper prepared by Associate Professor Sandy Simpson who heads the regional forensic psychiatry services.

He warned the Waitemata District Health Board of the serious outlook last November for this department which has responsibilities for both the Auckland central jail at Mt Eden and Paremoremo, the country's biggest top security jail.

These worries were actually outlined several times before the tough National-Act "more-in-jail-for-longer" scheme was confirmed, but drew no response.

Dr Simpson's November paper pointed to a 700 prisoner rise in jail musters since the change of government, and that double bunking will lift the total number of prisoners the Waitemata board experts care for by 368 this year and a further 104 in 2011.

There has also been talk of a 1300-prisoner men's jail at Wiri.

The total for the Auckland region could rise by 2800.

All this, the Simpson paper points out, while crime rates have actually been static or falling since the early 1990s.

He quotes the UN International Crime Victims' survey for 2007 showing New Zealand rates have fallen significantly in the last 15 years.

Dr Simpson says: "We have increased reporting of many problems, including the most important problem of domestic violence, but victimisation surveys show the actual rate is falling.

"We have become more punitive. Offending is more likely to result in criminal charges.

"The average time on remand has progressively risen ... there is a lengthening of most sentences. Inmates are serving a greater proportion of their sentences in prison."

On jailing, he says: "The process is of itself an unhealthy one ... it removes a person from their role, family and society and dislocates social relationships which otherwise help to give a sense of place and wellbeing.

"There is a loss of control, autonomy and disempowerment that comes directly as a result of the isolation from others.

"Behavioural responses to that include emotional numbing, self-harm and a tendency to exploit others who are weaker than oneself and to possibly be exploited by others who are stronger than oneself."

His paper highlights other worrying figures.

"There are too many people with serious mental illness in prison - we estimate between 12 and 15 percent.

"At the same time, mental illness is not a significant contributor to crime in our society.

"Even for the offences most commonly associated with serious mental illness the proportion is only about 6 percent."

His paper - written before the current tougher, longer sentencing, more prisoners, double bunking plans - criticises the fact that decisions on prison totals and planning which have major effects on mental health services are not linked to health funding and planning.

"Prison growth has major health implications that individual district health boards cannot plan for."

Question: Did the planning for the National-Act "three strikes" changes take these facts into account?

None of the details so far released seem to meet the misgivings which Dr Simpson made plain in his board report last November.

Nor in his contributions to two other national surveys - the Health of Offenders project in 2007 and a five-year strategic plan for forensic services in 2008.

These concerns need to be dealt with urgently before the "three strikes" scheme worsens the trends he has defined and affects the ability to work on general mental health in the community as a whole.

- Dr Simpson's world standing in this field is reflected in his appointment as clinical director of the law and mental health programme at the Centre of Addictions and Mental Health, and head of the law and mental health programme at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto - posts he will take up later this year.

- To contact Pat Booth email offpat@snl.co.nz. All replies are open for publication unless marked Not For Publication. Because of the large numbers of responses it is not possible to answer all correspondence.

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