Financial Review Debate — Department of Corrections

Can I take this opportunity to congratulate the Department of Corrections on a really outstanding year’s performance. If we go through a few of the notable achievements I think the Committee will see that there has been a huge amount of work and the department deserves the congratulations.

Participation in drug treatment and rehabilitation increased dramatically in that year, with the opening of new facilities and the implementation of a new, shorter programme. As a result, it had the highest recorded number of prisoners participating in drug and alcohol rehabilitation courses, and I think that is an area that this Government is really focusing on and looking to grow. We know that that is one of the most significant impediments to those offenders when they go back out into the community, and it is one of the most significant behavioural addictions that they have to deal with and that sees them reoffend and come back into our prisons.

We saw the start of two Whare Ōranga Ake with the work of the Associate Minister of Corrections, the Hon Dr Pita Sharples. They were established in this financial year and are particularly focused on Māori prisoners—who, of course, make up too high a number of our prisoners—partnering with local service providers. The early results of this—and I stress that it is very early days—are very encouraging. The majority of prisoners who have left those whare have been gainfully employed in the community, and remain gainfully employed. So we are continuing to support them closely.

The escape figures were at an all-time low in this particular year, with only four escapes—two breakouts and two from an escort—compared with nine in the previous year.

The positive random drug-tests are at an all-time low—an all-time low for those random drug-tests. It has been interesting to watch the Opposition climbing into the figures showing the numbers of people that the Department of Corrections is actually finding who try to enter prisons with contraband. The Opposition has actually been criticising the Department of Corrections for that. I say all power to the department. I think it is fantastic that it is stopping so many people trying to bring contraband into our prisons, and it is to be congratulated.

The other thing that we need to look very closely at is the smoke-free environment that was instituted throughout the department. That followed a long planning period, and 5,500 prisoners were supported to give up smoking—5,500 prisoners. That is outstanding work from this department over this year. There has been a 79 percent reduction in fires. There are lots of pluses in addition to the personal health of prisoners.

At the same time we have seen an enormous change programme through the probation service. We know that when we came to Government the probation service was in a pretty awful state. The previous Government had lost the plot, and we had some awful, awful risks being taken with our prisoners out in communities, which resulted in lives being lost. So the department has gone through an enormous change programme. The old manual seemed to grow and grow, year on year. Every time something went wrong, there would be another set of rules added, which really constrained the probation service to having to act in accordance with a whole manual of rules. So systems have been put in place now that have some mandatory standards but allow those highly trained people, who are working with offenders on a day-to-day basis, to use their initiative and be able to make judgment calls on how to manage some of these people, whom they are responsible for out in the community.

So it has been an outstanding year’s work, and that was reflected by, I think, the conversation in the Law and Order Committee when the Department of Corrections appeared before it. The big decision, of course, is around the public-private partnership at Wiri, and the Government has now made that decision, which is a unique contract—a unique contract—that focuses not on building prisons but on getting great results—

Report noted.

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