Each prisoner costs NZ $150,000 a year. Could that money be better spent keeping at-risk youth healthy, housed, fed and educated instead?

When kids or adults face poverty, hunger, and a breakdown in social relationships, is it any surprise that they turn to gangs, drugs, or violence? Isopo Samu of Tokotoko Solutions has spent a lifetime working with at-risk youth as a police officer, a teacher, and for the past 15 years as the founder or director of multiple youth and work-training organisations. We talk about how we can best use our time and money to help keep kids in school, and families together.