Post by Kiwi Frontline on Apr 15, 2017 18:53:29 GMT 12
PRISONS MUST DO MORE TO KEEP MAORI OUT OF PRISONS (Editorial)
Everyone knows that Maori make up half the prison muster but only 15 per cent of the wider population. These facts, repeated over decades, have ceased to astound or even interest us.
That's why the Waitangi Tribunal report on Maori re-offending is so valuable. As the report says, the situation with Maori imprisonment and re-offending rates "appears normal. It is not, and cannot be considered, normal."
But the tribunal concedes that kawanatanga or governorship has its rights in prison, just as Maori rangatiratanga should have. It wants a much more powerful Maori Advisory Board to have a real say in our prisons, for example. But it also concedes that this board can't make binding decisions on the department's chief executive, whose first responsibility is to ensuring public safety.
This should reassure conservatives worried that here as elsewhere, Treaty partnership must mean Maori dominance and power of veto.
A senior Corrections executive told the tribunal that "if we are to succeed overall we must succeed with Maori"
www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/91543669/editorial-prisons-must-do-more-to-keep-maori-out-of-prisons
Everyone knows that Maori make up half the prison muster but only 15 per cent of the wider population. These facts, repeated over decades, have ceased to astound or even interest us.
That's why the Waitangi Tribunal report on Maori re-offending is so valuable. As the report says, the situation with Maori imprisonment and re-offending rates "appears normal. It is not, and cannot be considered, normal."
But the tribunal concedes that kawanatanga or governorship has its rights in prison, just as Maori rangatiratanga should have. It wants a much more powerful Maori Advisory Board to have a real say in our prisons, for example. But it also concedes that this board can't make binding decisions on the department's chief executive, whose first responsibility is to ensuring public safety.
This should reassure conservatives worried that here as elsewhere, Treaty partnership must mean Maori dominance and power of veto.
A senior Corrections executive told the tribunal that "if we are to succeed overall we must succeed with Maori"
www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/91543669/editorial-prisons-must-do-more-to-keep-maori-out-of-prisons