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Archived Press Releases 2006 7th March 2006

Call to bring back the cane in schools and punishment in prisons

(7th March 2006)

If the Government is serious about wanting to reduce prison numbers they need to bring back the cane in schools and punishment in prison say the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

"Prison must become a place criminals fear to tread and schools must reintroduce the basic principles of accountability and responsibility. That will mean a return to the tried and proven concepts of punishment and work in prison and the strap and cane in our schools."

Commenting on the release of the latest Prison Population Forecast which predicts the muster will rise to an estimated 8685 in four years time, a spokesman for the Sensible Sentencing Trust said that all that is required to bring down the prison population is a common-sense approach and an end to the politically correct social experiment of the last four decades.

Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said "Previous Governments have implemented policies promoted by a vocal minority of well-meaning but seriously misguided intellectuals, bureaucrats and social-climbers."

Mr McVicar said this failed social experiment is a disaster of unprecedented proportions for the unskilled and uneducated who are now committing crime as a viable alternative to work.

"Our prisons are full of New Zealand’s underclass, people who are the byproducts of poor parents and a poorer still education system that has totally failed them. Kids need boundaries; they need to know they will ultimately be held accountable and responsible for their actions."

"They need to be taught this by parents and teachers - not by prison guards - when for many it is too late," Mr McVicar said.

"Respect and discipline are essential ingredients for young people to survive in today’s world, surely if we are a caring civilized society we should be teaching and giving our kids the skills they need to keep them out of prison in the first place. Prisons cannot and will not ever replace good parents and a good basic education"

Regards,

Garth McVicar
National Spokesperson,
Sensible Sentencing Trust.