Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki is lashing out at the Government, saying its prison policy is "not working" - and accusing Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis of ignoring him.
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New Zealand's prison population is skyrocketing, and our jails are at breaking point. In response, Mr Davis has announced plans for a new 500-bed prison, along with a mental health facility.
However Mr Tamaki calls this a waste of "money and man power" as it's "not getting to the root of our problem".
"I'm pretty much disappointed, disgusted and ashamed at the way that our Government has been handling the present prison situation," he says in a fiery Facebook video.
"The numbers of prisoners that are incarcerated, the problems with having to spend so much taxpayers' money on building bigger prisons and now adding beds and so forth, it just goes on and on and on."
Mr Tamaki accuses Mr Davis of ignoring the work Destiny Church is doing to help.
"We are offering to do something without any cost to the taxpayer, we're totally self-funded. We're having the most success of any rehabilitation programme and prevention that I know of," he argues.
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"Man Up has been one of the most successful ministerial programmes going now to rehabilitate not only men coming out of prison but also preventing the crime happening. These lives are changing. Thousands of lives that we have living proof of."
Mr Tamaki says Mr Davis won't even attend Destiny's hui or talk with the church - and he wants things to change.
"The discrimination, and the locked doors, the closed nature of this Government towards us right now has gone too far," he says.
"We have hundreds of these groups all across New Zealand and Australia that's having incredible success with gang members, with prisoners and ex-prisoners and families that are in trouble."
Newshub.
