NRT: This week’s distraction

Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, November 12th, 2012 - 5 comments
Categories: national - Tags: , ,

No Right Turn on this week’s offering from the Nat roulette wheel of political distractions…

This week’s distraction

Unemployment at record levels? A Minister looking whiffy over corruption? An embarrassing contracting-out failure which makes Ministers look incompetent? There’s nothing for National to do but spin the wheel! And this week, its landed on that old reliable distraction, crime!

Dangerous repeat violent offenders and sex offenders could be monitored for the rest of their lives after release from prison, says Police and Corrections Minister Anne Tolley.

She wants to develop a comprehensive management scheme similar to one run in Britain and says a law allowing it could be passed by the 2014 election.

The Government also has a measure before Parliament that would allow ex-prisoners to be sent back to jail indefinitely if the High Court deemed them dangerous enough.

Oh, those dirty crims, being allowed to resume their lives after completing their sentences. Better put a stop to that! That’ll get the sadism vote out, and stop people talking about those terrible economic statistics (or, more importantly, stop the Prime Minister from talking about it and telling everyone that he doesn’t give a shit).

as you can tell, I am quite cynical about this measure. But I’m even more cynical about the way that under National, justice policy seems driven not by sector needs, but by the need to provide distractions from failure in other areas. This is not a way to get good policy, and it is beginning to show.

5 comments on “NRT: This week’s distraction ”

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  1. QoT 1
    12 November 2012 at 4:36 pm

    And of course, unlike when Labour raises any idea so dastardly as giving poor kids breakfast, there’s no question of whether the [probably vast] cost of this to the taxpayer is warranted.

  2. Dr Terry 2
    12 November 2012 at 5:46 pm

    I have worked extensively with prisoners of all kinds. As with all human beings, there is bad and good in them. There are a goodly number whose feet Tolley would be unworthy to lick (though the poor souls would hate to endure such an event!)
    As usual we see vindictive National hard at its policies of hate and vengeance. Nevertheless, yes, it can at the same time serve as a convenient distraction ploy.

  3. kiwicommie 3
    12 November 2012 at 7:46 pm

    They just need to set up private prisons, then they can help their corporate friends by keeping kids in jail like with this case in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
    They won’t just monitor ‘criminals’, that is a lie, they already have police powers in place to monitor anyone who may commit a crime i.e. they can already track and monitor everyone already. I find it amusing slightly that the’right wing’ bitched about the so-called ‘Labour nanny state’ but when their neo-liberal champion is in charge they stay silent and crowd adoringly around their growing police state apparatus.

  4. Crashcart 4
    12 November 2012 at 10:13 pm

    I had to laugh when the guy from Crazy Sentancing Trust said over and over again that it was good for rehabilitation. Surely by definition deciding that you are going to monitor and limit their freedom for the rest of their lives means that you are nto trying to rehabilitate at all but instead punish and control.

    Amazing when you see someone using a word for its complete oposite meaning and they don’t get called on it at all.