Are we getting value for money within our prison system?
Research from Newstalk ZB shows that it’s cost us an extra $140 million since 2018/19 — up from $1.1 to $1.3 billion.
It also costs more per prisoner — each person behind bars costs about $150,000 per year, a 20 per cent increase.
All of this while the prison population has decreased by 25 per cent in the same time period.
Corrections Association President Floyd du Plessis told Mike Hosking that's because of a change of government policy rather than a reduction in crime.
“The violence outside in the community has gone up, not down. And so all these people that would've come to prison in the past are just sitting out in the community, they're on community sentences.”
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