June 04, 2024
Corrections budget set high to punish poor
![Watermark](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/logo-4.png)
![](https://waateanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/mntBLOCKSTORAGEhomemasternews_importersrcprison-inmate-mental-wellbeing-getty-images.jpg_1_Pub.jpg)
A spokesperson for People against Prisons Aotearoa says the Budget shows a Government that is working for the rich rather than society as a whole.
University of Auckland University criminology lecturer Emi Rakete says the Government is funnelling more than $3 billion to its class through tax cuts for landlords and the well off while gutting the rest.
A continued refusal to fund legal aid properly means a two-tier justice system has emerged where the rich have lawyers to get them off while the poor struggle to find a harried and over-worked public defenders.
“This Government has budgeted 6700 percent more for prison construction. Meanwhile spending on rehabilitation has gone up 0.6 percent. It’s clear this Budget is for the rich and shoring up these systems the government uses to punish the poor and that’s all that society is now, that’s al that’s left,” Ms Rakete says.