7. Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) Link to this
to the Minister of Corrections
Does he consider a reimprisonment rate of 37 percent after 24 months a satisfactory outcome, with each prisoner costing the New Zealand taxpayer almost $77,000 each year; if not, what is this Government doing to lower it?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) Link to this
No. However, the average cost per prisoner for 2004-05 was $59,000 and that cost to the country is too high. The Government has reviewed rehabilitation programmes, and we are implementing more intensive and better targeted programmes that include an increased emphasis on drug and alcohol treatment.
What is the Minister’s response to a recent Treasury review of criminal justice, which recommended the introduction of contestability into the supply of correctional services as a means of encouraging innovation in reducing reoffending, and will he be adopting that recommendation?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
The Government is currently looking at all aspects of the justice system, including corrections. Privatisation of prisons is not one of those areas. Our experience is that it is cheaper to house prisoners in a State-run system than it was in the one private facility we had in Auckland—cheaper by $10,000 per year.
Lynne PillayHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
Many. On 1 May I launched an extensive work employment strategy for prisoners that over the next 3 years will boost employment hours and lift the number of New Zealand Qualifications Authority units attained from 4,800 to 16,000. We have case managers and work brokers working in every prison. We have reintegration case workers. We are boosting the accommodation support beyond the sentence, and we are committed to two new drug and alcohol units before the end of this financial year.
Simon PowerHow are New Zealand’s reimprisonment and crime rates to change, given Treasury’s assessment that the crime reduction strategy adopted by the Government has “no particular focus on stopping inter-generational crime or consideration of the role of early interventions in areas such as education, health, income support and housing”, and what good is a crime reduction strategy that does not actually address the factors that might actually reduce crime?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
The fact is we have the lowest rate of crime this country has seen for 20 years. The anomaly is that we have an increasing rate of imprisonment. We are working on every area of justice to overcome the anomaly that we have the lowest crime rate but still have an increasing rate—an embarrassingly increasing rate—of incarceration, in this country.
How does the Minister justify his continued ideologically cloistered approach to prison management, when there is evidence and advice available that contestability from private prison providers will encourage innovation in reducing the rate of reoffending—as was the case with the Auckland Central Remand Prison?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
I point out to the member that the cost per prisoner per year in the Auckland Central Remand Prison was $44,000. We are currently holding prisoners in remand at a cost of $33,000 per prisoner per year. We took a leaf out of the privatisation book by looking to Railways and Air New Zealand, and we as a Government learnt from the lessons of the past.
Does he believe that private prisons could deliver worse outcomes than the public prison service, when in the last year prisoners have had trips to the beach and slap-up steak and ice cream dinners, and can he confirm that when the contract to manage Auckland Central Remand Prison was tendered the public prison service was the fourth preferred contractor out of four?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
I am not aware of the details of that tender process, but if the member wants to ask a question I am perfectly happy to give him the answer. We are not ideologically locked into privatisation of every single area of Government responsibility, and I think it is a timely reminder for this House and the people of New Zealand that the National Party is determined to privatise every single thing it can get its hands on.
Ron MarkIs it not a fact that much of what the State prisons are looking to implement now in the way of best practice has been taken from the achievements of the Auckland Central Remand Prison, and, that being the case, if Labour were to be in negotiations at some future time with New Zealand First and the issue were put on the negotiating table of providing a privately managed prison in order to give ourselves a benchmark against which we could judge the performance of the State prisons, can the Minister tell the House how that might be handled?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
We are happy to look at any idea that might improve the management of our prisons in this country. We look on a regular basis around the world for international best practice. One of the lessons we have learnt from Australia is that a private prison establishment has been taken over by the State again because in Australia they believe that the State system can run some of those establishments better—as we, indeed, did ourselves.