New Zealand’s Corrections Minister Judith Collins says she has asked for substantially more money to improve rehabilitation rates and the parole service, according to NZPA.
“We’ve got to put a far better effort into rehabilitation and this government has promised to double the spaces available for drug rehabilitation,” she said today on TV One’s new Q&A programme. “There is a very substantial budget bid in.”
Ms Collins said she was also bidding for more money in the May 28 budget for probation officers. “That’s also substantial…we have to have that parole service working really well because they deal with a lot of community-based sentences,” she said. “Unless we want to keep locking people up for longer and longer times … we have to have it working extremely well.”
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New Zealand State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie, has delivered his report on the well-publicised problems of the parole service. And the New Zealand Herald has delivered its verdict on Mr Rennie’s report:
By any yardstick, Mr Rennie has failed miserably. He has found no one accountable in terms worthy of justifying dismissal. That includes the chief executive of the Corrections Department, Barry Matthews, and the parole head, Katrina Casey. And there is not a murmur about who else, among the problem-plagued department’s staff, should be held accountable for these “serious failings”. The Government’s quest for public-sector accountability seems to have passed Mr Rennie by.
His report is the more abject in that he confirms the department has been failing to make the grade. Corrections’ internal standard is 85 per cent compliance with its own parole management procedures. Last December, it managed 80 per cent. Further, Mr Rennie judged that the department could have moved earlier last year to manage the potential risk to public safety caused by far more offenders being placed on community-based sentences …
The commissioner does not only fudge the issues of accountability. He is equally inept when reporting on the second part of his assignment: what should be done to restore public confidence in Corrections? He suggests the public had simply not picked up on the fact that the department has learned lessons after the deaths of Mr Kuchenbecker, Debbie Ashton – also the victim of a parolee – and Liam Ashley, who was murdered in the back of a prison van … Most logically, the restoration of public confidence would start with the exit of Mr Matthews. Only the identification and dismissal of lower-level staff, who were guilty for the most grievous breaches of parole monitoring, would have rendered that unnecessary. Mr Rennie’s report might have propelled matters to that conclusion. It has not.
There is a lot more background in the article at the NZ Herald.
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The government is looking to move some of New Zealand’s prisons back in the hands of private operators.
It has been done before, but opening the doors to a privately run prison was a five year experiment snuffed out by the Labour government. Prime Minister John Key though is convinced that private competition could improve New Zealand’s struggling prison system. “They were an effective operator from a cost perspective so in my view competition is a healthy thing,” says Key …
Auckland’s remand prison opened in 2000 and it was run by Australian Correctional Management, an Australian company. Despite one escape and a subsequent fine of $50,000, fears of a sloppily run prison did not eventuate. “They key to their success is they are penalised if they screw up,” says Criminologist Greg Newbold. But in 2005 the prison was back in the Department of Corrections’ hands. The Labour government decided that only the state should look after the state’s prisoners, which was a view shared by prison reformers.
This story is from NZ TV. On the site is an interesting 2:39 video related to this article.
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In recent years, about a quarter of all community work sentences in New Zealand have either been ignored or only partially completed, as reported by the Nelson Mail.
To tackle the problem, the law was changed in October to require offenders to complete a minimum of 100 hours of their sentence every six months … Corrections Minister Judith Collins said the national figures were unsatisfactory. “Offenders sentenced to community work are repaying a debt to society, and it is not acceptable to me or the community if they do not fulfil their obligations.”
About 2 million hours of labour are performed each year under community work sentences. Offenders who consistently work towards completing their sentences can have up to 10 per cent of their hours wiped … Criminals with large fines owing can convert their debts to community work sentences. In the year to June 2008, of the more than $783 million worth of fines owed, $38.5 million were wiped and replaced by community work. Most fines are owed for vehicle offences. A case study … revealed that a person with $18,000 worth of fines had them wiped in return for 180 hours of community service — a rate of $100 an hour.
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the breach figures showed that community work sentences were still not respected by offenders. “Offenders are just not giving a toss whether they attend or whether they don’t. They don’t seem very concerned about the consequences if they don’t do their sentence,” Mr McVicar said. “Unless judges read the riot act and enforce the consequences, whatever they might be, then the system will break down. That would mean building more prisons.”
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New Zealand Corrections Department chief executive Barry Matthews has said he will not resign, according to the New Zealand Herald News.
Mr Matthews was expected to step down from his $375,000-a-year role after Corrections Minister Judith Collins refused to express confidence in him over Auditor-General Kevin Brady’s damning report into parole … But Mr Matthews told reporters this morning he was doing the best he could and wanted to stay on to drive change in the department.
He said his department had a difficult job to do reaching more stringent standards and monitoring parole after the Graeme Burton case, but it did not have enough resources. Mr Matthews said the department needed a “step change” and he was “committed to staying on” and driving that change through.
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A new report has found more failings on the part of the New Zealand Corrections Department and the way it manages offenders on parole.
It details serious failings in the management of parole, in nearly every single case it investigated. The Auditor General’s Office has looked at how the department handled 100 case files including 52 offenders regarded as high risk. It has found in most cases the Department did not follow one or more of its own sentence management requirements and has identified several cases where Corrections was not managing offenders adequately … The report makes 20 recommendations to Corrections, mostly urging them to follow their own parole rules. These include:
- The proposed accommodation of offenders not being problematic for victims;
- Probation officers regularly visiting offenders in their homes;
- Senior staff overseeing how probation officers manage high-risk offenders;
- Enforcement action being consistent and prompt; and
- Victims being notified promptly about certain enforcement actions relating to an offender’s parole.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins says the report is alarming. “I am deeply disappointed and concerned by the finding of the report,” she says. “I support all of the recommendations of the Auditor-General and I am treating the findings of this report extremely seriously.”
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Maori groups or iwi are likely to put in tenders for running private prisons in New Zealand, the Maori Party says. Report from Stuff.co.nz:
The Government is drafting law changes to allow private companies to once again run prisons …Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said Maori would see great opportunities and she would not be surprised to see some groups or iwi putting in tenders. “Many Maori have considerable experience in prison work, not only in this country but also in Australia,” she said. “And in the past some iwi have expressed an interest in running prisons” …
Corrections Minister Judith Collins told the Dominion Post she would visit private jails in Australia to see how the system worked. “At this stage, my views are that we would build the prisons, that they would be owned by the state and that the management contract is what we would be wanting to tender.”
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The New Zealand Government’s plans for military-style “boot camps” for the worst young criminals have been introduced to Parliament, as reported by the New Zealand Herald.
It includes the Fresh Start programme – lasting 12 months, including up to three months in boot camp – and the doubling of youth court sentences. It will also extend the Youth Court’s jurisdiction so it can deal with those aged 12 and 13 accused of serious offences. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has previously said some of the changes will not be available until next year, to allow time to set up the programmes, or have the space in residential centres to house those sentenced. Other measures – including greater use by the Youth Court of orders for alcohol and drug rehabilitation, mentoring and parenting courses – would be available sooner as no law change was required.
The legislation is also expected to include “spotlight sentences” – where young offenders who do not comply with supervisory sentences are subject to monitoring with an ankle bracelet. In his speech, [Prime Minister John] Key said spotlight sentences would be a court-ordered contract setting out the expectations on the offender such as curfews, an end to gang involvement, compliance with drug treatment programmes, or regular school attendance. Mr Key said that to ensure compliance the court would “wield a big stick” – “intensive supervision and surveillance, including electronic monitoring of the young person using an ankle bracelet”.
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Private companies will again compete with the New Zealand Corrections Department to run new prisons, including a 900-to-1200-bed jail due to open by 2012, according to the Dominion Post.
The move, promised in National’s law and order policy, is set to reignite debate on the private sector’s role in public services. It comes as Mrs Collins signals that heads could roll in Corrections after a spate of escapes this year. The previous National government allowed private companies to tender for jail contracts, and let the management of the new Auckland Central Remand Prison, opened in 2000, to an Australian firm. Labour canned the contract in 2005 when it passed a law that removed the ability of private companies to run jails.
National argues that private companies commonly used to run prisons overseas provide better management and programmes and do the job more cheaply than government agencies. It cost $42,000 per inmate to run the Auckland remand centre when it was headed by Australian Correctional Management, compared to an average of $52,000 in a Corrections Department facility …
Labour argues that prisons are a core public service and should not be run for profit. A spokesman said the party would oppose any move to open prison management to competition. “Labour believes that it is the role of the public sector to deprive people of their liberty and not the role of the private sector. Prisons are a core public service along with defence and police.”
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In New Zealand, the governing ACT party has proposed a three strikes law for violent offenders. It has not been received without opposition.
Kim Workman of Rethinking Crime and Punishment, which is led by the Salvation Army and Prison Fellowship New Zealand, says Act’s $1 billion costing for the policy is wildly optimistic and it could cost four times that much. “During the election campaign, Act spokesman David Garrett said they would spend up to $1 billion to implement the policy. In fact, it would cost $3 -4 billion to implement, and a further ongoing cost of $56-75 million annual operational costs.”
According to the project’s analysis, the Department of Corrections has 15,000 offenders with three or more convictions for violence on its books, with more than half of those not currently in prison. “Over a very short space of time, we would end up with between 7000 and 10,000 more offenders serving a prison sentence,” says Mr Workman. “I have asked the Department of Corrections to check my figures. But if those figures are correct, it would be fiscally irresponsible to agree to the three strikes’ proposal as part of a coalition deal.”
He says New Zealand needs to take a lesson from the US, where eight states are trying to exit “three strikes” legislation. Mr Workman gives two reasons for their change of heart. “Firstly, they can no longer afford it. Secondly, they can’t find people willing to staff prisons that are inhumane and overcrowded,” he says. “Most thinking New Zealanders would prefer to see their dollars invested in some of National’s positive initiatives – the ‘Fresh Start’ programme for young offenders, and community based treatment for mentally ill and addicted offenders would be a great place to start.”
More on this at the National Business Review.
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