Estimates Debate — Vote Corrections

I am very pleased to stand up and take a call on Vote Corrections. In fact, I forgo the opportunity to speak on another extremely well-performing department, and that is the police department, to have an opportunity to speak on corrections, because I want to extend my congratulations not only to the Minister of Corrections, Anne Tolley, but to the Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections, Ray Smith, on turning round, over the past 6 years—and I know the personnel have changed a little over that time, but those are the people at the helm now—a service that is very, very strongly focused on reintegration and rehabilitation.

If I look back to when National first came into Government and look at corrections, we used to see corrections officers occasionally along Lambton Quay in their ghastly green, ill-fitting uniforms. That is what they had for a number of years under a Labour Government. I remember seeing the women officers walking along Lambton Quay, wearing their uniforms with pride, but clearly their uniforms had not been cut for the female figure. In fact, what they were having to do was wear uniforms that were not fit for purpose. Well, no wonder they had extremely low morale within the corrections service. The very first thing that the Minister of Corrections at the time did was give them a new uniform, a new uniform that not only was fit for purpose but also engendered the feeling of pride, and for the first time in many years, under this National Government corrections personnel were not the scapegoat. They were no longer the people who were blamed for anything that went wrong in corrections.

In fact, the culture has changed so significantly that all we ever see when we go on prison visits are men and women who are professional and have absolute pride in their work. They absolutely know they have been backed by their chief executive and their Minister, and they have the strongest focus. They say it in their literature. They say it in their book on reducing reoffending by 25 percent. They say that their absolute goal, their ultimate goal, is to reduce reoffending. Well, what a change—what a change. What a sea change that has been over the past 6 years under this National Government. We have people who take pride in their work and have an absolute focus on reducing reoffending.

That is based on some pretty significant research that shows that when offenders are released back into society, which, of course, they must be within months or even weeks from their release from prison or in starting a community-based sentence, they then reoffend pretty quickly. So it might be a matter of days; it might be a matter of hours. There is a tendency to reoffend. But also there is research that clearly demonstrates that treatment programmes provided for within corrections facilities can change the attitudes of prisoners and the beliefs of prisoners, and they can also teach them skills to cope on the outside. So based on that knowledge, based on that understanding, based on the great morale and great leadership in corrections, we now have a modern corrections system that is absolutely focused on tackling drug and alcohol abuse. Most prisoners who go into prison have issues around drugs and alcohol. We know that. We are providing more rehabilitation to every prisoner and we are beginning to show, with the prison muster and the rate of reoffending, which is dropping, that those rehabilitation measures are working.

We have more interventions by probation staff. Probation staff are talking to corrections staff and talking to the police, and together, with that combined effort, those interventions are keeping prisoners from reoffending. There is now an out-of-gate service in our corrections facilities. No longer do you have the day when prisoners finish their sentences and literally walk out the gate and are left to their own devices. Now strategies and plans are put in place to keep the prisoners safe, to keep them from reoffending and renewing that useless, worthless cycle of crime, reoffending, and going back into the corrections service.

One of the most memorable occasions I have seen over my time involved in law and order was at the women’s prison in Wiri, where we went into a working kitchen and spoke to a number of the women prisoners. They had huge pride in what they were doing. They were not only catering for the construction crew for the men’s prison in Wiri but also learning great skills that were transferable to the outside. Those prisoners were looking to a life that did not involve crime any more.

Vote agreed to.

Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

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