Criminologist calls on govt to invest in addiction programmes

Checkpoint

A criminologist is calling on the government to invest in addiction programmes to treat the causes of crime, rather than spending billions of dollars on locking more people up. The government has recently rolled out changes to sentencing, including encouraging the use of cumulative sentencing for people who commit offences while on bail, parole or in custody. It's the first step towards fulfilling National's Coalition agreement with New Zealand First. But those changes could cost billions and an alcohol and drug counsellor said all that money could be spent on rolling out more drug courts which are proven to reduce re-offending, Luka Forman has more.