Hard News by Russell Brown

So, should people go to jail for forging important identity documents?

Add to the price of imprisonment, getting hep C as well as the sentence. If we accept, as I do, that we are not as different to Australia in just this one thing: we line up in stats around what we do know about prevalence, which isn't much, on the whole a bit worse here, so it can't be accepted that we have 5% HCV in prison, (Corrections spokesperson, RNZ) whereas Australia has published research putting it at 40-50%. 15 % of people who were negative when they got there, leave with it- in NZ that could be 900 people per year. They are 150 x more likely to get in jail than in community. We need testing, treatment, or Corrections is failing their duty of care.

Or should they be given a second chance and become.... let's say an MP?

In America at least, its imprisonment rate has been attributed to a covert "New Jim Crow" agenda under the guise of the "War on Drugs" et al. Here in NZ, lock-em-upper Garth McVicar seems to be a covert "one law for all" type, going by his past rants, and his admiration for Donald Trump.

'The house I live in' (2012) outlines how so many black Americans are incarcerated and the rise of entire towns that exist solely because of private prisons. A collision of twisted drug laws, racism and capitalism.

This Politik story about Steven Joyce getting worried about the cost of the prison population and looking for ways to imprison fewer people for less time is interesting.

But, y'know, a good part of the current problem is directly down to his government's actions.

Tonight’s broadcast episode won’t be up until the morning, but for now here’s The extended “open floor” discussion with tonight’s Media Take panelists. There is conflict and a moving conclusion. 23 minutes of extended discussion with all the panelists .

It contains a fair bit of conflict, but Patricia, silent till the very end, brings it all home.