Leading from the front issuu

INTRODUCING
ICOPA
ICOPA stands for the International Conference
on Penal Abolition. The conferences are held
bi-annually and gather supporters from around
the world — academics, activists, practitioners
and people who are currently or were previously
imprisoned. ICOPA’s guiding purpose is the
abolition of prisons and to encourage dialogue
for new ideas to help achieve their goal.
Pat has attended conferences in Auckland,
Hobart, Toronto, Belfast, London (twice), Lagos,
Trinidad and Amsterdam. He also visited
Mexico City to research how the largest city in
the world copes.
realised that change had to be transformative at a government
level, Pat says.
“We’re not quite up to the Transformative Justice stage
here yet but we’re getting nearer. A case in point is the
victory for Māori ward representation on local councils.
Eventually, it has to come. People are looking for it
and asking for it and, with the Treaty and Te Tiriti being
taught in schools, that will make a huge difference. ‘The
prison walls have got to crumble’, as Ruth used to say”.
NORWAY’S HUMANE,
SUCCESSFUL RJ MODEL
It was at an ICOPA conference that a colleague opened
the door to Pat visiting Norway. Pat points out that if you
had to do time, Norway would be a good place to do
it. Prisoners are treated humanely, there is a focus on
Restorative Justice, rehabilitation and healing. The Scandinavian
model of justice speaks to the sense of caring
for the offender in such a way that they can successfully
re-enter society. And it works. Norway’s justice system
sees the lowest recidivist rates in the world and one of
the lowest crime rates. In open prisons, clients live pretty
much like your everyday citizens while under supervision.
As well as being a humanitarian model, it is simply
sound management; to achieve rehabilitation of members
of society for their reintegration back into the community
for the next phase of the lives, crime-free.
PAT VISITS
NORWAY’S
FOUNDING
CRIMINOLOGIST
Nils Christie was Norway’s founding criminologist. He
campaigned long and hard against traditional prisons,
liberalising drug laws and against the negative impacts
of industrialisation. Modern punitive punishment practices
around the world really concerned him, especially the
mass incarceration model followed in the U.S.
“An eye for an eye will leave
the whole world blind”.
m.k. gandhi
A criminologist Pat met at ICOPA in Belfast in 2010
emailed Nils to let him know that Pat wanted to visit him.
Nils was constantly in demand and when Pat fronted up
to his office, Nils had just returned from Georgia in the
US where he was trying to rescind the death penalty,
which had been reintroduced there in 1973.
Above: Pat’s days involve assisting others to strengthen our communities: “We’re really in trouble if politicians keep “copping out”
and insisting on building more prisons”.
Restorative Justice – for an unjust justice system 161