A criminal justice group that opposes the ‘tough on crime’ election messages is bringing experts and community members together for a “creating communities of care” public event in Auckland on Saturday in an effort to encourage a more meaningful discussion.
People Against Prisons Aotearoa has called for a campaign to “reorient the discussion” this election away from “empty ‘tough on crime’ posturing” and towards “meaningful investment in communities”.
The group’s Care Not Cages campaign aims to pressure the government to implement the recommendations of the 2019 Turuki! Turuki! report into the criminal justice system, which called for sweeping policy change.
“Care Not Cages aims to focus attention on the social conditions that cause crime, and how government policy presently allows these social conditions to exist,” People Against Prisons Aotearoa said in a release Friday.
Today’s hui in New Lynn brings together experts, people with lived experience, and participants in social movements to discuss how the present justice approach harms everybody.
“The goal of the event is to imagine how criminal justice policy could instead hold those who have caused harm to account, allow those who have been harmed to heal and enable all of us to thrive.”
Speakers include People Against Prisons Aotearoa’s Emmy Rākete (Ngāpuhi), Sulia Jackman of Pillars, a charity supporting the children and whānau of people in prison, David McMabb from Lifewise, a community social development organisation which helps people living with hardship, Ruby Macomber a community outreach manager for Youth Arts New Zealand’s Te Kāhui team, and Leilani Thompson-Rikys from the transgender support organisation Outline.
The event concludes with small group discussions about how attendees can advance the aims of the Care Not Cages campaign through letter writing, conversations with members of their community, and pressuring politicians.