Another example of academic reconstructionism

The DomPost today ran a piece which is part of a series entitled, "Private Business, Public Failure: Inside Our Prisons".

Something caught my eye and got the BS detector buzzing:

Dear Editor,

'Incarceration Nation' (DomPost, December 12) featured Auckland University sociologist Dr Tracey McIntosh claiming that from the time of European settlement "...there was a desire to incarcerate significant numbers of our people", 'our people' being Maori.

This is simply not true. According to the Official New Zealand Yearbook of 1900, of the admissions to prison in 1898, Maori numbered only 134 of 1,724 - or 7.8 percent. That year more women than Maori were admitted to prison.

The significant growth in the Maori prison population share - 51 percent at September 2016 - came with urbanisation and welfarism.