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Vision

Justice is about more than how we deal with crime. It is about how we create a fair, peaceful and sustainable world. Our Justice policy sits alongside our commitment to rebuilding local economies, celebrating diversity and creativity, ending violence towards each other and our environment and ensuring that people's needs, are met.

The Green Party justice policy begins with creating an inclusive and safe society in which there is less crime, and the development of natural justice within our criminal justice system, by:

• involving the complainant (victim) as a key participant in proceedings;
• recognising that crime is primarily a breach between people rather than between an offender and the state;
• promoting a restorative rather than retributive justice system;
• promoting habilitation and rehabilitation in sentencing, rather than punitive measures;
• improving access to the justice system;
• use of a less adversarial approach in courts;
• increasing participation of the wider community in justice procedures;
• encouraging non-violent conflict resolution methods throughout society;
• reducing levels of domestic violence;
• recognising the enduring importance of Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

We will give effect to these through our commitment to restorative justice.

Summary of Key Policy Points

• a moratorium on new prison construction
• an increased focus within prisons on reducing re-offending rates and rehabilitation of inmates
• establish a communication facilitation unit to monitor rehabilitation of violent offenders and ensure victims are protected
• counselling and compensation available for victims, paid for by the offender
• expanded development of habilitation centres as recommended in the 1989 Prison Systems Review
• fund adult restorative justice pilot schemes and marae-based justice programmes
• expansion of the Diversion Scheme
• wipe criminal records for minor offences after a period of 7 years without offending
• investigate creation of a Public Defender’s Office and Public Prosecutor’s Office
• reform the legal aid criteria to allow community organisations to receive support
• significantly improve access to official information

Restorative Justice Policy

The present system is failing

New Zealand has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, after the U.S.A..

Yet despite spending millions a year on locking up offenders we also have a high rate of recidivism. For instance, 86% of prisoners will be reconvicted five years after release and 51% of prisoners will be back in prison after five years (Reconvictions and Reimprisonments Rates for Released Offenders, Ministry of Justice, May 2002)

At the same time the current system does not meet the needs of victims. The New Zealand Council of Victim Support states that our current system provides inadequate compensation for losses suffered because of crime, does not allow adequate space for the views of victims to be heard in relation to bail, sentencing and parole decisions, that victims are often re-traumatised by court processes and that there are inadequate support structures for vulnerable witnesses.

Although legislation such as the Victims Rights Bill, the Sentencing Act and the Parole Act have been passed by Parliament to address these concerns, the rights of victims will never be more than an add-on within an adversarial court system.

The criminal justice system must be based on what works. Our present system is failing. Restorative Justice offers a way forward.

What is Restorative Justice?

Restorative justice has three characteristics:

• The victim is at the centre of the process. The first priority is to heal the harm caused by the crime;
• Involvement of the community, allowing more appropriate and creative outcomes;
• The focus is getting the offender to take responsibility for what they have done, and take steps to put it right.

Restorative Justice Works

There are a number of restorative justice programmes and several pilot projects in operation across the country.

A study done on behalf of the Crime Prevention Unit / Institute of Criminology VUW by Maxwell and Morris 1999 found that Project Turnaround and Te Whanau Awhina were effective in preventing re-offending and resulted in savings to the justice system.

The work of the Greens on the Justice and Electoral Select Committee helped to make the Sentencing Act and the Parole Act world leaders in the legislative recognition they gave to Restorative Justice. The pilot evaluations have been heralded as successful and restorative justice programmes have been expanded.

Marae-based Justice and Restorative Justice

The Green Party acknowledges the work being done within the Maori community on developing working models of Maori justice processes and supports this work wholeheartedly. There are both similarities and differences between restorative models and Maori Justice models and we recognise that much can be learned from sharing knowledge between these systems. We support the development of Wananga to transmit and extend such knowledge, and funding for implementation of such processes.

Specific Policies

Advancing Restorative Justice

We must begin now to both trial restorative justice approaches across the country and build public awareness of the potential of this approach.

The Green Party supports funding:

• adult restorative justice pilot schemes and marae-based justice programmes in a variety of cultural and geographical settings;
• a public debate and information campaign about the justice system and restorative processes.

Sentencing Alternatives

Prison is important to protect the community from dangerous offenders. It may also be included as part of a sentencing package resulting from a restorative justice conference. However majority of people in prison are in for non-violent offences, and prison simply makes them more hardened criminals. The Green Party supports:

• a moratorium on all new prison construction;
• expanded development of habilitation centres as recommended in the 1989 Prison Systems Review;
• expansion of the Diversion Scheme;
• establishing a communication facilitation unit to work with corrections, courts, prisons, Children and Young persons and their Families service, counselling providers and police to monitor the rehabilitation of perpetuators of violence and to ensure their victims are adequately protected and supported;
• setting boundaries for sentencing considering:
  (i) danger to the public; repetitive, serious offending; mental illness, poor life skills or illiteracy;
  (ii) the necessity for diagnosis and treatment of health issues such as ADD, undiagnosed deafness, addiction, nutritional problems etc.;
  
• increased provision for rehabilitation of existing inmates, focussing on self-recognition and acceptance of responsibility, guilt and remorse; counselling; education; conflict resolution and anger management therapy to prevent repeat offending; and support for creativity eg arts and technology.

The Green Party opposes the privatisation of prisons, but supports "out-sourcing" for rehabilitative programs and services such as counselling and therapy services.

Righting wrongs

Appropriate compensation and restoration for complainants is overdue. The Green Party, in cooperation with other parties, worked to ensure that the Victims Rights Act 2002 strengthened the rights of victims in the criminal justice system. For example provision for the offenders to apologise personally to the complainant, if the complainant so wishes.

We further support:

• provision to deduct unpaid restitution and court fines through the IRD or Income Support. Creating trusts will cease to be a way of avoiding liability. Offenders receiving Income Support (or of limited means) will be given a choice to either pay off fines or provide restitution in some other way;
• counselling and compensation available for complainants, preferably paid for by the offender.

The Green Party will consult fully with Police, Prisoners, Prisoners Aid, Howard League for Penal Reform, Restorative Justice groups, Justice Department, Work and Income New Zealand and the general public; referring to the Roper Report and the Women's Access to Justice Report (1999) in the development of restorative justice policy.

Wiping Criminal Records

The Green Party supports the expunging of criminal records for minor offences after a period of 7 years without further convictions.

Prison Management

If we are to genuinely create a safer society, prisons need to focus more on rehabilitation and re-integration of inmates into society. Prisons at present make many people more angry, more hostile, and better equipped to commit crime and get away with it.

We provide little money for helping people to avoid a life of crime, money that could provide opportunities in education, meaningful work and community development. Yet we seem to have an open chequebook for locking people up after they have done wrong. Over half the total Corrections budget this year will be spent on locking people up. Under 10% will be spent on rehabilitation.

The Green Party supports the time, energy and resources that the Department of Corrections has invested into implementing the new integrated offender management system. This was intended to provide a new assessment tool to reduce re-offending, however more provision needs to be made to address the needs that are identified by this system.

We need to refocus our energy and resources to ensure that people in prison do not end up back there once they are released.

The Green Party supports:

• Encouraging inmates to sustain or re-establish family and whanau links by simplifying the prison visit process
• Increased accessibility to education programmes within prisons so that people have the skills to contribute meaningfully to society once released from prison
• More effective and increased accessibility to drug and alcohol programmes within prisons for those that need it
• Changes to protocols concerning methadone treatment within prisons that ensure registered addicts can continue treatment.
• Review the management and rehabilitation of women in prison, in particular pregnant and nursing mothers.

Access to Justice

The Green Party calls for reform to allow:

• community organisations and community class actions to be eligible for civil legal aid in matters of public interest, including Environment Court action;
• investigation into the provision of free funds (not loans) in civil cases. A funding framework will be provided through the civil legal aid programme to enable community groups, women's and parents' organisations or iwi to work with people seeking to obtain a protection order;
• courts to be empowered and encouraged to convene Community Group Conferences to get resolutions without going to trial;
• investigate development of a Public Prosecutor's office and a Public Defender's office, including salaried legal staff. These could replace police prosecution role and the present system of legal aid for defence;
• introduction of plain English into court procedures.

Domestic/Family Violence

The Green Party is committed to reducing domestic violence. The legal system alone cannot do this. We need to break the cycle of violence. The most common forms of violence against women are domestic and sexual violence. We are committed to rebuilding strong supportive communities and promoting peaceful relationships from the individual to the international level. We honour and support the enormously valuable work already being done to reduce violence and respond to the harm its causes.

The Greens will:

• Review, with a view to reducing, the cost of obtaining a protection order;
• Resource improved provision of targeted information to women and men about protection orders;
• Fully resource the Domestic Violence Act 1995;
• Increase educational and training programmes to deal with attitudes and behaviours that result in violence. These include non-violent conflict resolution in schools for both boys and girls and mandatory attendance at (culturally appropriate) counselling, stopping violence groups, anger management courses and/or other programmes which result in offenders refraining from violent behaviour;
• Secure financial support for agencies that provide safe houses and refuge for women and children in violent relationships;
• Reduce violence on television by requiring the Broadcasting Standards Authority to monitor the amount of violence on all television channels through surveys and report the findings to Parliament each year;
• Require the Broadcasting Standards Authority to monitor and enforce the TV codes of broadcasting practice on the portrayal of violence, in particular the requirement that channels avoid screening programmes containing gratuitous violence (i.e. violence not justified by the context);
• Require TVNZ, as a publicly funded channel, to take a lead in reducing the amount of violence on television by:
  developing guidelines on violence for producers and programmers;
  committing itself to not screening programmes that contain gratuitous violence.
• Provide free counselling and support for victims of violence, in addition to ACC;
• Ensure information about sexual victimisation is readily available through various outlets accessible to all;
• Develop inter-agency protocols designed to initiate a reduction in the incidence of domestic violence.

Gun Control

The Green Party supports making private ownership of automatic weapons illegal.

We also want to see a thorough review of gun control measures to ensure that they are focussed on harm minimisation and are based on “best practice” in this respect.

There is further policy under this heading on their site that does not come directly under our brief of dealing with violent crime and so is not reproduced here.