| Agency Name: | Department of Corrections |
| Type: | Department |
| Nativename: | Maori: Ara Poutama Aotearoa |
| Preceding1: | Department of Justice |
| Jurisdiction: | New Zealand |
| Headquarters: | Level 9, Mayfair House, 44–52 The Terrace, Wellington 6011 |
| Employees: | 10000+ FTE staff (30 June 2020)[1] |
| Budget: | Total budget for 2019/20 $2,171,655,000[2] |
| Minister1 Name: | Hon Mark Mitchell |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Minister of Corrections |
| Chief1 Name: | Jeremy Lightfoot |
| Chief1 Position: | Chief Executive |
The Department of Corrections (Māori: Ara Poutama Aotearoa) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with managing the New Zealand corrections system. This includes the operations of the 18 prisons in New Zealand and services run by Probation. Corrections' role and functions were defined and clarified with the passing of the Corrections Act 2004.[3] In early 2006, Corrections officially adopted the Māori name Ara Poutama Aotearoa.
Prior to 1995 the country's prisons, probation system and the courts were all managed by the Department of Justice. The Department of Corrections was formed in 1995 by the Department of Justice (Restructuring) Act 1995.[4] This act gave management of prisoners, parolees and offenders on probation to the Department of Corrections while leaving administration of the court system and fines collection[5] with the Ministry of Justice. The intention was to enable the new department to improve public safety and assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.
In 2012, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Corrections Minister Pita Sharples announced the government would spend $65 million over the next four years, with the goal of reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2017.[6]
Since it was established, the department has had to cope with a dramatic growth in the prison population. Between 1997 and 2011 the number of inmates increased by 70%[7] and, at 201 prisoners per 100,000 of population (in 2018), New Zealand has one of the higher rates of imprisonment in the Western world.[8] The Fifth Labour Government built four prisons[9] – at Ngawha (Northern Region) housing 420 prisoners, Springhill (north of Huntly) housing 840, Auckland Women's' holding 330 and Milton (Otago) holding 425 – at a cost of $890 million.[10] When National came to power in 2008, the department built a new 1,000 bed prison at Mt Eden for $218 million[11] in a public private partnership and gave the contract to Serco.[12]
The department's growth has been such that in July 2010, Finance Minister Bill English expressed concerns that government spending was "led by a rapidly expanding prison system which would soon make Corrections the government's biggest department".[13] As at December 2011, New Zealand had 20 prisons and the department employed over 8,000 staff.[14] The department's operating budget is over $1 billion a year.[15]
Despite English's concerns about the growing cost, in 2011 the government approved the building of a new 960-bed prison at Wiri estimated to cost nearly $400 million.[16] Later that year justice sector forecasts showed a drop in the projected prison forecast for the first time.[17] Charles Chauvel, Labour Party spokesperson for justice, and the Public Service Association both questioned the need for a new prison when there were 1,200 empty beds in the prison system.[18] [19] In March 2012, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley announced that the new prison would enable older prisons such as Mt Crawford in Wellington and the New Plymouth prison to be closed. Older units at Arohata, Rolleston, Tongariro/Rangipo and Waikeria prisons will also be shut down.[20]
In 2018, the Labour Government announced a plan to reduce the prison population by 30% over 15 years.[21] As at 30 September 2019, there were 10,040 people in prison in New Zealand.[22] Since then, the prison population has dropped more than 25 per cent, from a peak of 10,820 to 7677 in March 2022.[23]
The prison population is very fluid and altogether about 20,000 people spend time in prison each year,[24] the vast majority on remand. Nearly 75% of those given a prison sentence are sentenced to two years or less,[25] and all these are automatically released halfway through their sentence.[26] As 30 September 2019, 93% percent of inmates were male. 51.9% of prisoners were Māori, compared with about 16% of New Zealand's resident population. The cost of keeping a person in prison for 12 months is estimated at around $150,000.[27] In 2001 the department estimated that a lifetime of offending by one person costs victims and taxpayers $3 million.[28]
In 2000, a rehabilitation approach based on enhanced computerised access to information about offenders was tried. The new chief executive of the department, Mark Byers, introduced a $40 million scheme designed to reduce reoffending called Integrated Offender Management System (IOMS). At the time it was described as "the biggest single initiative the department has undertaken to reduce reoffending". Seven years later, Greg Newbold said the scheme was an expensive failure and described it as "another wreck on the scrapheap of abandoned fads of criminal rehabilitation."[29]
Research suggests that nearly 90% of offenders were alcohol or drug affected in the period leading up to their offence.[30] In 2004 an Ombudsman's investigation into the treatment of prisoners found that only 174 inmates a year were able to receive substance abuse treatment.[31] Since then successive governments have responded by establishing additional Drug Treatment Units (DTU's) within the prison system. By 2011, this increased the number of prisoners able to attend drug treatment to 1,000 a year.[32] This represents only 5% of the more than 20,000 people who spend time in prison each year.[33] In 2023, the six month drug treatment program reduced reoffending by only 1.9%.[34]
Corrections also offers rehabilitation programmes targeting criminal thinking and decision making. One such programme called Straight Thinking was delivered to offenders in the community and in prison. Between 2000 and 2006 over 10,000 offenders were required to attend this programme until an evaluation found it appeared to increase the likelihood of re-offending rather than reducing it.[35] The Department replaced Straight Thinking with the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme (MIRP).[36] In 2011, an evaluation of the MIRP found that two years after completing this programme, the reduction in recidivism was zero per cent.[37]
In 2012 the government announced that an extra $65 million would be put into rehabilitation, in an effort to reduce re-offending by 25% within five years.[38] Five years later, the Department's Annual report for 2018 shows its 17 prison based rehabilitation programmes reduced reoffending by an average of only 5.5%. Only three of the 17 results were considered statistically significant.[39]
The effectiveness of the Department's rehabilitation programmes is undermined by inadequate support when prisoners are released. To assist with reintegration, the Department has identified seven issues or 'reintegration needs' faced by prisoners on their return to the community; the need for suitable accommodation on release is top of the list.[40] Historically, reintegration has been difficult partly because the Department funds only two halfway houses with a total of 28 beds in the whole country – Salisbury Street Trust in Christchurch and Moana House in Dunedin (co-funded by the Ministry of Health). Less than 1% of the 9,000 prisoners released each year go into them, compared with Canada where 60% of federal prisoners are released into halfway houses.[41] There are no halfway houses funded by Corrections in the North Island where the bulk of prisoners are held.[42] There are no halfway houses for women funded by Corrections anywhere in the country.
The use of private prisons has also been tried, stopped and reintroduced. New Zealand's first privately run prison, the Auckland Central Remand Prison, also known as Mt. Eden Prison, opened under contract to Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) in 2000. In 2004, the Labour government, opposed to privatisation, amended the law to prohibit the extension of private prison contracts. A year later, the 5-year contract with ACM was not renewed.[43] In 2010, the National government again introduced private prisons and international conglomerate Serco was awarded the contract to run the Mt Eden Prison.[44]
On 16 July 2015, footage of "fight clubs" within the prison emerged online and was reported by TVNZ. Serco was heavily criticised for not investigating until after the footage was screened.[45] On 24 July 2015, Serco's contract to run the Mount Eden prison was revoked due to numerous scandals and operation was given back to the New Zealand Department of Corrections.[46] Serco was ordered to pay $8 million to the New Zealand government as a result of problems at Mount Eden Prison while it was under Serco's management.[47]
Serco has also been given the contract to build and manage a new 960-bed prison at Wiri. The contract with Serco provides stiff financial penalties if its rehabilitation programmes fail to reduce reoffending by 10% more than the Corrections Department programmes.[48] The Auckland South Corrections Facility was opened on 8 May 2015.[49] [50] The contract to operate the prison ends in 2040.[51]
The department comprises three service arms and four other groups. The service arms are prisons, community probation, and rehabilitation and reintegration and each arm used to have separate internal processes, infrastructure and support staff.[52] As of May 2012 the newly appointed chief executive, Ray Smith proposed merging the three service arms into one team.[53] Smith said the segregated infrastructure "creates replication of work, is inefficient and has resulted in an overly layered structure."
Mark Byers was chief executive of the Department of Corrections for its first ten years, until he retired from the public service in 2005. Byers oversaw a range of organisational initiatives in his time at the helm and, in 2000, introduced a new computer system called "Integrated Offender Management". At the time, this was described as "the biggest single initiative the Department has undertaken to reduce reoffending." IOMS cost $40 million but had no impact of the rate of re-conviction which remained at 55% two years after release.[54]
Barry Matthews, who replaced Byers, had formerly been Deputy Commissioner of Police in New Zealand and the Commissioner of the Western Australian Police Force. He served as chief executive of Corrections for five years from 2005 to 2010 and, in a farewell interview, listed his top three achievements as the implementation of cell phone blocking technology in prisons, better enforcement by the Probation Service of sentence compliance, and the establishment of the Professional Standards Unit to investigate corruption by prison officers.[55]
During Matthews' tenure there was public concern about the management of the department. Simon Power, opposition spokesman for justice from 2006 through to 2008, made a number of calls for an inquiry into Corrections,[56] but none was held. In 2009 Matthews' leadership was questioned by the new Corrections Minister, Judith Collins, after a run of bad publicity that included the murder of 17-year-old Liam Ashley in a prison van;[57] the murder of Karl Kuchenbecker by Graeme Burton six months after he was released on parole;[58] and the Auditor General's critical report on the Probation Service's management of parolees.[59] Matthews exacerbated speculation about his leadership during the Burton debacle when he claimed: "There's no blood on my hands".[60] After the Auditor General's report was released in 2009, Collins refused to express confidence in Matthews and media commentators expected him to resign. However, Matthews refused to do so and served out his term; on his retirement he admitted he had dealt with so many crises, the department was like a "landmine".[61]
Ray Smith, former deputy chief executive of Work and Income and former deputy chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development's Child, Youth and Family, was chief executive from 2010 to 2018.[62] [63]
Deputy Chief Executive Jeremy Lightfoot and National Commissioner Rachel Leota shared the acting Chief Executive role from November 2018 until February 2019 when Christine Stevenson, formerly Deputy Chief Executive at Corrections and newly appointed Comptroller of Customs and Chief Executive New Zealand Customs Service, was seconded back to lead the department from February to December 2019.
Jeremy Lightfoot was again Acting Chief Executive from December 2019 to February 2020 when he was permanently appointed as Chief Executive in February 2020.
Topia Rameka was the Department of Corrections’ Deputy Chief Executive Māori until he was fired in August 2023, after he was accused of making racist and sexually suggestive remarks towards female employees.[64]
A study in 2015 found that about 90% of prisoners had been diagnosed with a mental health or substance abuse disorder during their lifetime. The rate of substance use disordes among prisoners is 13 times higher than the general population. Female prisoners were even more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health or substance abuse disorder than their male counterparts.[65]
Prisoners are four times more likely to attempt suicide and twice as likely to experience suicidal ideation than the general population.[66] [67] One of the factors contributing to the suicide rate is the high rate of mental health problems experienced by prisoners.[68] The 'Health in Justice' Report conducted in 2010 by the Ministry of Health found 52% of prisoners had a history of psychotic, mood, or anxiety disorders. Twenty percent of those surveyed (about 1,700 prisoners) said they were ‘thinking a lot about suicide’.[69]
Only limited psychiatric care is available. In its Investigation into Medical and Health Services available to Prisoners, the Ombudsman reported in 2011 that the Corrections Department does not meet Article 22(1) of the United Nations Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. This article requires every prison to provide psychiatric services to a similar level to that which is available in the community.[70] The Ombudsman found prison healthcare to be "reactive rather than proactive" and mental health care available to prisoners to be "inadequate or unsuitable".[71]
In April 2015, a 44-year-old inmate, Benton Parata, died in Christchurch Men's Prison after being bashed by three other prisoners.[72] An expert on gangs in New Zealand, Dr Jarrod Gilbert, said revenge attacks could "snowball" out of control while the prison officers' union said assaults in New Zealand prisons already occurred almost daily and it was only "good luck" there weren't more deaths.[73] [74]
In March 2009 analysis of the previous 60 months, showed that 70% of prisoners reoffend within two years of being released from prison and 52% return to prison within five years (some of them more than once). For teenage prisoners, the recidivism rate (return to prison) is 71%.[75] The government estimated that if it reached its reduced reoffending target of 25%, there would be 600 fewer people in prison by 2017. In 2014, prison numbers went up (to 8,700) rather than down, due to more offenders being held on remand.[76]