8. SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) Link to this
to the Minister of Corrections
Does he have confidence in his department; if so, why?
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Corrections) Link to this
Yes, much more than I would have had 10 years ago. Why? Well, I will give the member just three out of many reasons. Firstly, prison escapes per 100 prisoners are just one-sixth of the escape number 10 years ago under a National Government. That means the escape rate has fallen by 84 percent. Secondly, drug taking in prisons is less than half what it was when the National Party left office; fewer inmates are giving positive drug tests. Thirdly, much more is being done in positive areas to prevent reoffending, such as greater provision of work, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes—factors that are associated very closely with offending levels.
Can he give this House an assurance that high-profile, serious offenders in Pāremoremo prison are not getting special treatment, and why did his department refuse to answer written questions from me earlier this year, about whether William Bell and others were getting special treatment, in order to “protect the privacy” of these inmates?
I can tell the member that I have been absolutely assured by the Department of Corrections that William Bell was not getting special treatment. I know that the member is fond of saying that inmates at the maximum security block at Pāremoremo prison are in a holiday camp, but it is a holiday camp where people are locked in their cells from 5 at night till 8 in the morning, and it is a holiday camp where very spartan conditions apply, quite properly—I make no apology for that; I believe that these inmates are a serious risk to the community, and they deserve the close personal supervision and monitoring that they get every hour of the day. One thing I can tell the member is that, unlike when National was in Government and the Minister said the perimeter fence at Pāremoremo prison was not to stop the prisoners from escaping but just to slow them down, we have now got proper security in that prison, and, unlike the situation under National, inmates do not escape from it.
H V Ross Robertson Link to this
What has the Labour-led Government done to reduce the number of escapees so dramatically?
Madam SPEAKERIt is very difficult to hear. I will be asking some members to leave, if the noise continues at this level.
In the 1990s prison escapes were as high as 154 inmates escaping a year. In the last 4 years the figure has been under 20. It has come down from as high as 154 to under 20. Why has it come down? Well, I mentioned that in my answer to the last question; one of the reasons is that we have put in 17 kilometres of perimeter fencing, and it is much harder for people to get out. Unlike at the prison close to Mr Power’s electorate, one does not have to cross just a 6-wire fence to get to the prison; one now has to cross a perimeter fence. There is electronic monitoring. There is much better monitoring and supervision of inmates and the factors that lead to escapes. That record is a record to be proud of. It is one of the lowest escape rates of any country in the Western World.
Why did his department move a convicted murderer to within 300 metres of the workplace of his victim’s daughter, after it had already placed him next door to where she lives, or does he not recall his stating in 2003 that his new laws would make that sort of mistake a thing of the past?
I absolutely recall that. Regrettably, the murder the member is referring to happened in 1992. At that time there was no Victims’ Rights Act in New Zealand. It was only in 2002 that we brought in the right for every person registered on the notification list to be advised of any plans for release or parole. Unfortunately, the victim whom the member is referring to was not on the victim notification register—unfortunately. Three members of her family were. The Parole Board, as a result of that, ensured that a condition of release was that the particular offender would not live within 50 kilometres of the three people who were on the victim notification register. The family of the victim has now been contacted by the police. They are now on the register, and, as a result, the Department of Corrections not only has recalled the inmate—it moved the inmate within 24 hours of being notified that the inmate was living next to one of the family of the victim—but also has now asked the Parole Board, which has the authority in this area, not to release that inmate, at the point that he might be released again, in the vicinity of anyone on the victim notification register. If the National Government, instead of doing nothing on victims’ rights for 10 years, had brought in the Victims’ Rights Act before that murder, this problem would not have arisen.
David Benson-Pope Link to this
What action has been taken to reduce access by inmates to contraband such as drugs and cellphones?
It was very clear that there was a major problem with both drugs and cellphones in prisons. We have taken effective action against that. As I have noted, we have halved the rate of positive drug tests in prison. We are doing more in a bill that is currently on the Table before the House. With cellphones, we have also had much closer searching, but we are now in the process of putting jamming devices in every prison, so that if any cellphone is smuggled in, it will not work anyway.
How does the Minister respond to the brother of the young woman whose mother’s murderer was placed next door to her, and then near her workplace, who said: “What annoys me most is how Corrections and its Minister have misled the public and purported to have systems in place that they clearly have not, and that the Minister has just ‘shrugged off’ my family’s case in a dismissive one-liner ‘She wasn’t on the register’ ”?
I have already answered that question at length and I will not repeat what I have already said. But in that article it was also suggested by that person that the victim whom the offender was placed next to had not gone on the victim notification register—she did not want to be on it. Fortunately, the police have approached her and she is now on that register, and we can ensure that that situation will not happen again, because the system does work as long as people register.
Does the Minister have confidence in his department when, in addition to these botch-ups, the last 2 weeks have seen four offenders escape, including a convicted murderer; a twelfth guard suspended from Rimutaka Prison this year; and an alleged head-butting incident and brawl involving Manawatū Prison staff, at a Palmerston North hotel?
How many times does the member have to be told that if he wants to talk about escapes, he should know that escapes are at a rate one-sixth of the level they were when his party was in Government, and he sat behind, and was an apologist for, the National Minister of Corrections. Yes, from time to time there will be incidents. I cannot say that all corrections officers at a party will behave better than National members behave at their private parties. I deplore the way that that particular corrections officer behaved, but it was totally outside the jurisdiction of the prison, it was not on prison property, and it was not in prison time. I am not sure how the member expects the Department of Corrections to act in that regard.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Mr Power is on record in the New Zealand Herald this morning as saying that he was going to ask a totally different set of questions. Perhaps he would like to take the opportunity to do what he promised to do.