Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

This week Ideas looks at crime, punishment and rehabilitation.

In 1910, that old softie Winston Churchill had this to say about the need to rehabilitate criminals:

We cannot impose these serious penalties upon individuals unless we make a great effort and a new effort to rehabilitate men who have been in prison and secure their having a chance to resume their places in the ranks of honourable industry. The present system is not satisfactory.

A century later the voices of those calling for tougher penalties and a harsher approach are drowning out anyone echoing Winston Churchill's concerns.

Ideas producer Jeremy Rose talks to Chris Elisaia a man - who has spent half his adult life behind bars - and Waitakere District Court Judge Phil Recordon who has sentenced Elisaia to prison more than once.

And Chris Laidlaw talks to Victoria University associate professor Michael Rowe about his research which shows some categories of violent crime are actually falling.