Larry Williams Drive

Chris Hipkins has just confirmed Labour is dropping its plan to get people out of jails. When they first took over six years ago, Labour set a target of reducing the prison population by 30 percent in 15 years. That target is now gone. Hipkins was asked about it today, and says there is no target for the next term. This is massive, because Labour was celebrated for this. On November 29, 2018, there was a huge write up in the Guardian about how great Kelvin Davis was. “The man on a mission to get New Zealand’s Māori out of prison”- said the headline  Labour's never backed down from this target, never admitted this was a mistake. As crime rose, as our concern over crime rose, as people with ankle bracelets on committed crimes- Labour stood by this.  And now they’ve backed down today. This is an admission that it was a bad idea, because of course it is. How many crimes do we now have to point to where offenders have ankle bracelets on? They’ve already got in some sort of trouble, but they’re out in the communit