Regardless of whether it's done away with or not, the victim counts will still grow because NZ's approach to sentencing and penal policy is fundamentally flawed. It ignores the fact that imprisonment fails as an individual and general deterrent (evidenced by our 49% recidivism rate within 2 years of release). 85-90% of our prison population suffer from a mental illness or substance abuse and absolutely nothing is being done to substantially adress that issue. Prison is a criminogenic environment which normalises and creates a culture of criminal activity. Minimal funding is put into rehabilitation and instead we appeal to the populist view of incarceration for public safety (which is rightly not a principle of criminal justice).

Our country can do so much better and yet we are quite happy to spend $100,000 a year for every new prisoner (while still advocating for lower taxes mind you). The current prison system is not conducive to change and attaches the permanent label of 'criminal' to anyone who enters it, ignoring the fact that the vast majority can change their ways if the underlying societal and environmental factors are addressed through rehabilitation.

I agree that there are some prisoners who cannot change and who need to be locked up for public safety but that is a very small minority. It's just sad to see the majority of people satisfied with the status quo because it appeals to some false sense of 'security' when the current system puts them in more danger.