Thread: Is buying 69 firearms from GunCity in 18 months signs of an addiction ?

Originally Posted by gimp

I would rather see the money spent on positive results-focussed rehabilitation and prevention programs rather than emotive "punish them!!" mentality. Stop crime before it happens through reducing poverty etc maybe, cos GETTING TOUGH ON CRIME pretty much hasn't worked awesome ever

Rehab programmes don't work. Ask any long time CO and they'll tell you that crims stop offending when they decide they're sick of getting locked up and not before. Some of the rehab programmes we run in NZ cost upwards of $60k per person, per year. These are the most effective programmes, usually for sex offenders, and these programmes reduce reoffending by a little over 10% for those that participate. That doesn't count the $90k per year it costs to lock them up. Some of the other programmes run in NZ prisons actually make people more likely to offend and we spend over a $billion per year to keep doing something that doesn't work. Mostly we do it because apparently getting tough on crime is a vote winner.

Of the 8k plus people imprisoned at any one time in NZ, guess how many are back in prison five years after getting out? After all the money we spend 'rehabilitating' and 'reintegrating' them back into the community....

50%. That's right. Half of the people in prison now will be back in prison within 5 years. It keeps the justice system ticking over nicely though, and keeps a lot of police, lawyers, judges, prison officers and probation staff in a fairly well paid lifestyle.

What does stop people committing crimes? A decent education, a job, an environment where a prison record is not the norm, or a rite of passage. But hey, it isn't sexy (or a vote winner) to spend money on things like that.