Cannabis: End Prohibition!
There will be a referendum on cannabis reform at the same time as the 2020 general election. There will be a yes or no question on the legalisation of cannabis use, but the wording of the proposed legislation is not yet known. The criminal justice system is racist. This has to be our starting point. […]
A Letter from the Inside (I)
We received this submission from Socialist Review reader RWK, currently a prisoner in the Otago Correctional Facility. We’re proud to print it here. Socialist Review subscriptions are available free to all prisoners on request. Back in ’95, when I started coming to jail, prison officers were more confident in their role as wardens. Nearly all […]
Jai Davis’s Death: Corrections’ Disgrace
What is a man’s life worth? Very little, if they are a prisoner. That must be the attitude of the Department of Corrections, as the terrible details coming out of the inquest into Jai Davis’s death at Otago prison in February 2011 make clear. Anyone with a conscience reading about Mr Davis’s death must feel […]
Prison reform on the path to prison abolition
[Activist Olive McRae submitted this article to Socialist Review, and we were happy to print it in our latest issue. National’s announcement last week of more plans for ‘working prisons’ gives the article an added relevance and urgency. You can subscribe to Socialist Review here.] “Those of us that identify as prison abolitionists as opposed […]
The Easy Rider Tragedy and Capitalist Justice
Harry Johnson, a Socialist Review reader, writes on the very different outcomes of the Easy Rider tragedy and the Pike River disaster in the courts. The Easy Rider sank in the Foveaux Strait in 2012 after being hit by a rogue wave. One child and seven men, including the skipper, Rewai Karetai, drowned. Faced with this […]
Family Court Reforms
The war on the poor has extended its reach to the Family Court. In the guise of protecting the vulnerable and improving the experience of those needing assistance to resolve family disputes the Government has reformed the Family Court fundamentally. Although the Minister of Justice consulted with an expert advisory group what became clear when […]
Free Teina Pora now!
When Pora was 17, in 1994, he was arrested by police in Otara and held in custody and questioned for over four days without a lawyer. The police got him to confess to a brutal rape and murder. He was charged and convicted despite the fact that he could not identify what the victim looked […]
The Criminal Injustice System: from Aotearoa to the USA
Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow (2011) has caused a huge storm of discussion, debate and controversy in the United States. It may well be a book that sparks a new social movement. Alexander documents the rise of mass incarceration in the USA, and link this to entrenched racism, poverty and injustice. The privatising […]
Maori teacher brutalised by police
We are sharing this story of police brutality from tangatawhenua.com . Without their pioneering work sharing this it would not have got the further media attention that has come in recent days. TangataWhenua.com was asked to share this story as few other mainstream media outlets felt it was “newsworthy” enough. What follows is provided verbatium, […]
Free Taame Iti and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara!
Free Taame Iti and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara! Taame Iti and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara have been sentenced to 2 and a-half years jail for possession of unlicensed firearms and Molotov cocktails. Urs Signer and Emily Bailey’s adjurned sentencing – and the suggestion of home detention – suggests further injustice to come. This is a shameful end to […]
