Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Newstalk ZB has discovered it’s getting more expensive to keep prisoners behind bar.It costs us an extra $140 million since 2018/19 — up from $1.1 to $1.3 billion.It also costs more per prisoner — each person behind bars costs about $150,000 per year, a 20 per cent increase.All of this while the prison population has decreased by 25 per cent in the same time period.Barrister and visiting justice in prisons Lady Heeni Phillips-Williams told Kate Hawkesby the Government needs to provide answers on how exactly money is being spent.“It appears to me that money is being splashed about with no accountability.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.