This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

The Department of Corrections and the prison system fail to keep communities safe and to do justice. As 52% of formerly incarcerated people are re-imprisoned within 5 years of release,[1] prisons clearly do not stop ‘crime’ or any social harm associated with it. No Pride in Prisons recognises the need for a radical shift in how society defines and deals with social harm, as demonstrated in demands 10, 26, and 47. Ultimately, this means the end of the Department of Corrections, but No Pride in Prisons calls for its progressive defunding in the intermediate-term. Defunding the Department of Corrections would require a simultaneous decarceration or reduction in the total number of imprisoned people. Much the same as defunding the NZ Police (see demand 7), by defunding the Department of Corrections, funds may be reallocated towards practices and institutions that address the underlying structural causes of social inequality.

[1] Arul Nadesu, Reconviction Patterns of Released Prisoners: A 60-months Follow-up Analysis, (Wellington: Department of Corrections, 2009), 6.