Legalising weed, swapping prisons with rehab: Proposals to fix justice system

Tackling racism, replacing prisons with rehab centres, tougher alcohol regulation and legalising cannabis - those are just a few of the recommendations made in the Government's long-awaited justice report.

The Government isn't committing to act on it but has made one big promise: rolling out more drug and alcohol courts which have been on trial for seven years and delivered promising results.

Auckland's two pilot courts will now be permanent, and after some serious lobbying, Hamilton will be next centre to get one.

"I've got it, I get the message, you're getting one and it will happen next year," Justice Minister Andrew Little said on Thursday at the launch of the criminal justice reform report.

It's an alternative approach to jail time and the Government is promising to roll out more. Eventually, the Justice Advisory Group says we should replace most prisons with rehabilitation centres.

Chester Burrows, who headed the Government's Justice Advisory Group, said it's not something he'd recommend rushing into but rather work towards it.

"This is something that would need to happen over decades and there is no suggestion at all that we would just open the doors tomorrow and send them out into the community that's unprepared."

National leader Simon Bridges described the proposal as "ridiculous" and says it would never work.

This report is supposed to be the launching pad for the Government's overhaul of the justice system, but the Justice Minister isn't promising to adopt all of the recommendations.

"We see the report as a starting point, a foundation," he said. "Look, it's impossible to say we're going to take them all on."

The very first recommendation is securing cross-party support, but Bridges says there is "no chance" because the approach is "very soft on crime".

The report calls for tougher alcohol laws and recommends legalising recreational cannabis. But if the country doesn't vote 'yes' at the referendum in 2020, Labour won't touch it again.

"If a referendum says 'no' politically it's not an area we would go in again," the Justice Minister said.

The country's woeful over-representation of Māori in prison is another priority highlighted in the Justice Advisory Group's recommendations.

"We need to acknowledge that our justice system is racist," Burrows said.

But the Justice Minister is refusing to set any Māori-specific targets.

"I'm not going to put a precise figure on it, but it is probably the most significant challenge we have - the incredible racial bias in our system."

Producing the report has been fraught with three high-profile resignations from the Justice Advisory Group.

Newshub received resignation letters under the Official Information Act, with one lamenting that the final report wasn't the right vehicle for fundamental change.

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