The Attorney General summons talking heads to a consultation on prison reform, informs them that the country, in the throes of a recession caused largely by diminished revenues, is spending $50 million per month on people on remand in the nation’s prisons, and says that the consultation is being used to inform the public about what his government intends to do about it and solicit their opinions.
Now I am sure that the Government’s intentions go further than prisoners on remand. In fact, the AG admits that he is on the admirable course of selling proposed legislation to the population. All well and good. But this smells like a lengthy process and a haemorrhage of $50 million per month in this guava season calls for urgent action.
With this in mind I am offering the following suggestions:
Firstly, immediately free all who have been already incarcerated for a period longer than that for which they are likely to be jailed, or who are likely to be charged less than $75,000 if convicted. Give them a “get out of jail free” pass and let bygones be bygones.
The second category to be considered are those people who did not fall in the first category, who have been incarcerated for over five years, are not awaiting trial for acts of violence, sexual offences fraud or other offences to be determined, and who have not been convicted more than once for a similar offence within the five years prior to the offence for which they are presently charged.
These people should be released on the condition that they report to a police station or other designated place twice each week and in addition attend a rehabilitative programme to be conducted by Vision on Mission or similar organisations and maintain an attendance record of 80 per cent for the duration of the programme. There should be suitable, legally enforceable penalties for failure to comply with the terms of the release.
This would immediately result in substantial savings, free up prison space, reduce the need for additional prison officers, save court time and thus speed up processing of trials, reduce the need for additional court space, ease the burden on the office of the DPP, reduce the frustration within the prison population and bring about a general improvement in the administration of justice.
Mr Attorney General, if you wish to do anything along these lines I am sure that you can easily sell this to the general population without any further consultation. Your only opposition will come from the opposite benches in the Parliament and from your legal colleagues who will see a reduction in their sources of revenue.
Go for it, and donate 0.5 per cent of the savings in the first year to a charity or charities of my choice.
George Boxill,
Lower Santa Cruz