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The Te Pāti Māori political party has announced it wants to abolish prisons in New Zealand.
In a Facebook post this week, party co-leader Rawiri Waititi asks: “If you’re not trying to abolish prisons in Aotearoa, what are you doing in Parliament?
“Political parties from across the House have used our longstanding policy to abolish prisons as an opportunity to scare the public, despite decades of evidence proving that prisons don’t work.
“Te Pāti Māori stands firmly behind our policy of creating an Aotearoa where prisons are not needed.
“Decades of evidence from Aotearoa and across the globe has made it absolutely clear that prisons are completely ineffective at deterring crime, rehabilitating offenders, and lowering re-offending rates.
“Over half of all prisoners reoffend within two years of their release because these institutions were never designed for rehabilitation.”
Waititi says prisons don’t work because they “do nothing to address the root causes of crime: poverty, inequality, unemployment, homelessness, racism, poor mental health, and trauma”.
“We want to move resources away from ineffective prisons towards effective prevention, rehabilitation, and community-led solutions.
“Our entire policy platform is designed to eliminate the root causes of crime; we want to create an Aotearoa where prisons are redundant.
“This isn’t going to happen overnight, but there are immediate steps we can take to achieving this goal.
“We can repeal Three-Strikes, we can decriminalise drug use, we can make sure every person is housed, and we can reform the tax and social security system to curb inequality, and lift people out of poverty.
“Countries like Norway are already well on their way to eliminating prisons. Instead of large, centralised prisons, Norway has a system of small, community-based correctional facilities that focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
“We are not going to abolish prisons when we are in government in 2026, but we are going to start building an Aotearoa where this becomes a possibility.
“We need a transformative move; focussed on rehabilitation, reintegration and recidivism rather than punishment and incarceration.
“Our movement is about being hard on healing rather than hard on crime!”
In response to the policy announcement, the National Party took to social media, saying the Labour Party’s only law and order target while in Government was to reduce the prison population.
“Now it looks like their coalition partner will help them go even further if elected in November.
“National has cracked down on crime and New Zealand is safer because of it.
“The choice is clear: more criminals running rampant again under Labour, or safe streets with National.”
And ACT List MP Karen Chhour says when someone sent Te Pāti Māori’s post about abolishing prisons to her she thought it was a “sick joke”.
“Unfortunately, it’s not. The idea being pushed by the Māori Party that the solution to the over-representation of Māori in prison is to abolish prisons altogether is insulting and dangerous.
“What about the victims? Do they just not count? Do the rights of violent offenders matter more than the long trail of victims they leave behind many of whom are Māori themselves?
“I’m tired of survivors being erased from these conversations. Accountability is not oppression.
“Ignoring violence does not heal our communities. Pretending prisons are the problem while refusing to confront harm only protects the perpetrators of harm, not victims.”
