Monday, August 20, 2018

Half of Maori prisoners are Ngapuhi?

That's the claim by Minister for Corrections, Kelvin Davis. The question mark is mine. RNZ reports:


Mr Davis said Māori make up over 50 percent of the prison population, and he wants that number reduced.
"Of that 50 percent, half again, are from Ngāpuhi, my own tribe, so this is personal.
That's news to me.

At June 2015 only half of Maori inmates expressed an affiliation.

Of these 24% are Ngapuhi.



At the 1999 prison census Ngapuhi made up 17% of sentenced prisoners and 20% of rendered prisoners. So the percentage is rising.But not fast enough to be at half in 2018.

There may be many more prisoners who express an affiliation with Ngapuhi but not as their primary. Also many who have an affiliation but clearly aren't expressing it.

But what does Mr Davis know that the rest of us don't?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Watch the comment "for me this is personal" to become more common in the coming year from Wellington. It seems to be used to affirm how much someone cares about doing their job and how conscientious they plan to be.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure the Mongs will be pleased to have their status as New Zealand's worst criminals challenged like this.

I predict an upsurge in violent crime as they attempt to restore the balance.

David George said...

Hmm Nga Puhi is not a tribe, really but a confederation. They certainly are the largest tribal grouping represented in prisons... they are also the single largest grouping represented in Parliament- including Winston Peters.