Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:630;Page:2062] 
9.  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Does he have confidence in his department; if so why? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 Yes although there is always room for improvement. 
Simon Power 
: How can he continue to have confidence in his department when Department of Corrections officers are taking inmates to the beach rewarding them with porterhouse steak ice cream chocolates fizzy drinks and lollies and showing pornographic videos in their cells at night or is this what the Government meant when it said it was getting tough on criminals? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I will always support a system within the prisons that incentivises good behaviour. However the incidents the member refers to are outside prison protocol. Disciplinary action has been taken and they will not occur again. I would like to remind the member regarding the steak incident that we feed prisoners for $4 a day or thereabouts and steak is not normally part of their diet. 
Simon Power 
: Does he have confidence that his department has the capacity to improve its efforts at rehabilitating prisoners when only 65 inmates have been placed in drug treatment units in the last 7 months out of an annual target of only 174—a number the Ombudsman condemned as “extraordinary”—and when 83 percent of the prison population has a history of or a current drug and alcohol problem? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I do not think we are doing well enough in the area of drug and alcohol treatment. We will be reviewing and are reviewing those programmes and we will be delivering better programmes to more prisoners in the future. 
Simon Power 
: Can he give an assurance that the new rehabilitation programmes announced yesterday will include dedicated drug and alcohol programmes in light of the fact that the number of positive tests for methamphetamine use in prisons has according to his own answers to written questions increased from five in the 1999-2000 year to 66 in the 2004-05 year; if not why not? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I accept that the increase in incidents of P usage within prisons reflects the increase in incidents of P usage in the general community. That is a sad indictment of our society and we must do everything we can to stamp out the use of P. I have every confidence that the new programmes we have in place—the new ones to replace the ones cancelled yesterday—will offer better drug and alcohol treatment for those inmates. 
Simon Power 
: Can he give an assurance that none of the inmates of the 60-bed unit at Christchurch Prison who allegedly watched pornography in their cells at night were sex offenders? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I am not aware of that and I cannot answer the question. I would be more than happy to provide that information to the member if he wishes to write to me. 
Simon Power 
: How can the Minister continue to have confidence that there is no need for an independent and wide-ranging inquiry into prisons when even the Corrections Association which represents prison workers has said in recent days that it supports an inquiry? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The Corrections Association of New Zealand has not said that it would support an inquiry at all. The member should check with the association to get clarification on that point. We are dealing with a very difficult environment. We are not running kindergartens. We deal with over 50000 new sentences each year in this country and with over 9000 new people going into prison. I think that the Department of Corrections does an excellent job in a very difficult environment.