21 November 2013
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of people in prison in the western world, and even within that appalling statistic, it is notable that Maori are imprisoned at three times the rate of everyone else - with 51% of the jail population being Maori.
At last, one man has stood up and shown us the way to right this tragedy.
James Rapley, (lawyer of Christchurch) I salute you! Your country will be forever in your debt as we slash the enormous spending on jails.
The only thing that amazes me is why nobody thought of it sooner - it's so starkly obvious. Why the heck are we investing so much money in Breakfast for Kids and other programs? We have Kids Can charities providing shoes, teachers & CYFS trying to drag susceptible young people onto the straight and narrow, and even people like Hone Harawira trying to get Maori off P and other drugs.
Now, thanks to the bold initiative by James Rapley, we can dispense with all that crap.
The answer was staring us in the face all along - to reduce the number of Maori in prison, cut their sentences by a third!
I expect to see Mr Rapley's knighthood in the New Year's Honours List in six weeks' time.
Fantastic work!
Copyright © Alan Charman