Jack Tame: The missing piece of the law and order debate

Over the last five years New Zealand's prison population has substantially dropped at the same time as concerns over crime rates have more than doubled.

Labour can't point to data that suggests their lower prisoner numbers have led to lower crime rates. Whether there is any meaningful and significant causal effect between the lower prison population and higher reported crimes rates is unclear.

Six years ago, it was a different story. In 2017, Labour confidently framed a lower prison population as a good thing.