Is New Zealand’s prison system about safety, or just punishment? And what are the social and financial costs of prioritising retributive justice?

What if our hunger for punishment is costing us more than we realise? In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey sits down with Professor Tracey McIntosh, a scholar in Indigenous Studies at the University of Auckland, to explore New Zealand’s prison system as an expensive “consumer service”.

Together they ask if we’re paying billions for a system that lowers crime rates and improves public safety, or one that simply punishes while incurring massive costs to the public and future generations.

Bernard and Professor McIntosh also explore the intergenerational impacts of incarceration, the disproportionate effect on Māori and impoverished communities, and the staggering financial toll.

With Māori making up over half the prison population, the long-term societal costs are enormous, impacting health, education and productivity across generations. Professor McIntosh challenges us to rethink our tolerance for incarceration and the real societal costs of a system that funds failure instead of rehabilitation.

Click here for more episodes Bernard Hickey’s economics podcast When the Facts Change