Te Pāti Māori says the justice system needs to be radically transformed to address persistent inequities and will campaign on abolishing prisons by 2040 in the lead-up to November’s general election.

The idea is perhaps radical but not necessarily new: celebrated lawyer Moana Jackson said in a 2017 speech to Wellington Girls’ College (and republished in e-Tangata) that it was “important that people realise that lots of Māori people have been having this conversation for a long time”.

“Not just because for every Māori in prison there’s a whānau, there are children, and so on, but simply because of the costs of that imprisonment for those who are impacted by it.”

Māori have long been overrepresented in the prison system – about 52% of prisoners and 66% of female prisoners are Māori, despite Māori making up about 17.5% of the population.

Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said suggestions the party wanted to open up prison gates and let offenders run free if it won at the next election was “absolutely stupid”.

“We’re not irresponsible,” Waititi told the Herald.

“We are not going to abolish prisons when we are in Government in 2026, but we are going to start building an Aotearoa where this becomes a possibility.”

Under this plan, prisons would eventually be replaced with community-based and community-led programmes that rehabilitated offenders, he said. Government funding from prisons would be diverted to support the community-based programmes.

Rehabilitative programmes that included security and short-term intensive supervision would still be available for the country’s worst criminals that were a danger to themselves and others, he said.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi speaking at a protest at Parliament in May last year. Photo/ Mark Mitchell

“There is a small amount [of people] that would need, yes, a lot more security, a lot more work, but still ... you’re not locking them up forever,” Waititi said.

“Prisons are very violent places also. If you have got violent people in a violent environment, that’s not going to improve anything once they are released anyway.”

Waititi said prisons in New Zealand did nothing to address what he considered the root causes of crime, such as poverty, unemployment, poor education rates and poor mental health.

“Our entire policy platform is designed to eliminate the root causes of crime; we want to create an Aotearoa where prisons are redundant.”

The party favours the progressive Scandinavian-style justice systems in countries like Norway that have a heavy focus on rehabilitating offenders and where, according to a piece by The Conversation, “life in prison resembles the outside world as much as possible” and there is a “more humane approach” to incarceration.

“Countries like Norway are already well on their way to eliminating prisons. Instead of large, centralised prisons, Norway has a system of small, community-based correctional facilities that focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society.”

Waititi said prisons had never “improved anybody’s wellbeing” since their introduction in New Zealand in the early 1840s.

“Recidivism rates are high here, which tells us that the current system is not working.”

Government data show 56.5% of people with previous convictions are re-convicted within two years following their release from prison and 36% are re-imprisoned after two years following their release from prison.

On Monday, Labour responded to the policy (which Te Pāti Māori also campaigned on in 2023), saying it would “never” support such an idea. Leader Chris Hipkins said there would unfortunately always be a need for prisons.

Labour leader Hipkins at a campaign rally held in Wynyard Quarter, Auckland, earlier this month. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“There are clearly some policies being promoted by Te Pāti Māori that Labour would never support – such as the abolition of prisons,” he said.

“I would love to live in a society where we don’t require prisons, unfortunately we do not live in that society.”

Speaking to the Herald on Wednesday, Waititi challenged Hipkins to come up with a better idea, adding that the justice system required radical “transformation”.

“We have a solution and we have a plan to [move to a more] transformative system where it allows people to live with some dignity and to heal,” Waititi said.

“We want to be hard on healing and start to improve the condition of the people living here in Aotearoa. What that will do is build safer, better communities.”

At last count (September 2025), there were 10,860 people incarcerated in New Zealand. By mid-2027, the prison population is forecast to breach current capacity, and by early 2035, it is expected to creep over 14,000 (prisoner numbers are currently tracking below the latest projections).

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.