Sad

It saddened me to watch Bailey Kurariki lash out at the media last week. And today he has been charged with assault. Sad? Isn't this guy a scum of the earth crim who should be behind bars forever? He's acting like it. The question is: is he acting like it, because he's being treated like it?

At the time of his release I wrote to 2 newspapers who were sensationalising aspects of his release on parole imploring them to stop the scrutiny and irresponsible reporting. Kurariki had by all accounts made some good progress in prison and was in good shape to give it a real go.

Kim Workman has been reported today on the issues:

Rethinking Crime and Punishment director Kim Workman said yesterday that the last two years of Kurariki's sentence in the Maori Focus Unit at Hawkes Bay Prison had given him a nurturing, supportive environment.

Mr Workman said Kurariki left prison "full of hope and with clear goals for the future", but the intense parole supervision he faced was undoing the good work.

"The lack of consistency between the prison and parole regimes was a recipe for failure."

Mr Workman said international research showed intensive parole supervision was more ineffective than boot camps and "scared straight" programmes.

Food for thought. Garth McVicar will be happy though - harass these guys enough and they will end up back in prison where they can rebuild their hope safe behind walls.