Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:628;Page:308] 
5.  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Is he satisfied that the Government is doing all it can to alleviate the reported current prison overcrowding crisis; if so why? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 Yes the Government has been closely monitoring the situation. Officials are working on a range of measures to manage prisoner numbers in the short and the longer term. 
Simon Power 
: Does the Minister agree with his officials in the briefing to the incoming Minister that “there are no credible options that would definitely decrease the forecasts for the prison population post-2008”; if so how does he expect to house the increasing number of prisoners in light of his own view that no more new prisons are being considered? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The Government currently has a building programme. It has committed over $800 million to the provision of 2000 new prison beds. We accept there is pressure on the prison system but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation correctly. 
Simon Power 
: With prisoners being housed in vans showered at rugby clubs and kept in police and court cells how can the Minister convince the members of the New Zealand public that they are safer since he became the Minister of Corrections? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: They are just as safe now as they were under my predecessor. With regard to the use of vans the chief executive has said that that was a temporary measure at one prison and he has instructed that it will not occur again. 
Dr Pita Sharples 
: He aha te mahere rautaki kua whiriwhiria kua whakaaetia e nga tari katoa o te Kawanatanga nei kia whakawhaiti haere te nama tino teitei rawa o nga tangata kei ro whare herehere i te mea i te marama o Paenga-whawha i te tau 1997 e 4988 nga mauhere engari ka tae ki tera Rahina 14 o tenei marama tonu kua piki ake te nama mauhere ki te 7545 he pikitanga tenei o te 51 pai heneti ahakoa kare noa kia pau te iwa tau? 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
What is the all-of-Government strategy to reduce the incarceration rate within our prisons given that in the month of April 1997 there were 4988 people in jail but by Monday 14 November last week this number had climbed to 7545 an increase of 51 percent in less than 9 years? 
] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: This Government accepts the fact that numbers have increased. The Government has cracked down on serious crime and it is locking offenders up for longer. We accept however that a whole-of-Government approach is needed to try to reduce the number of people going into prisons and to assist those who come out of prisons to stay out. This Government is engaged in just such that approach. 
Simon Power 
: Does the Minister believe that responsible Government involves a Minister keeping his fingers crossed in the hope that despite officials’ advice prisoner numbers might reduce by 2008; if not why is he doing that? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I think we accept that prisoner numbers will increase. That is why we have embarked upon an extensive capital development programme to put more than 2000 prison beds in place. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Does the Minister agree with the suggestion in the briefing from the Department of Corrections for the incoming Minister that pressure on resources has made rehabilitation ineffective that assessment and management of prisoners with mental illness are inadequate and that such are the inevitable results of a Government policy focused on its locking people up rather than on justice or the reduction of crime? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The Government has an obligation to protect the public from serious offenders. They will remain locked up. We however accept the view that we must try harder in rehabilitation to prevent those going from prison from reoffending and going back in. We are focused on that area and we will continue to work hard. 
Dr Pita Sharples 
: 
I rongo au ki to whakautu mai ki ahau na reira ka tipu te patai ahea timata ai te mahitahi o nga tari katoa o te kawanatanga ki te whakaiti haere i te nama o nga tangata kei ro whare herehere?  
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
I heard the Minister’s response and it gives rise to the question: when will all Government departments work together to reduce the number of people in prisons? 
] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: They are engaged in that exercise as we speak. 
Simon Power 
: Why does the Minister not just admit that prison numbers and the Department of Corrections are in a shambles swallow his own ideological burp and allow the private sector a role—something his Government’s Corrections Act eliminated last year? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: This Government has for a long time accepted that it is the Government’s role to look after prisons in this country. If I can use the issue of prisoner assaults as a measure of the situation in prisons today I can say that when that party was in Government in 1998-99 the number of assaults per hundred inmates was in fact 1.74. Today or in the 2004-05 year the number of assaults was 0.39 per hundred inmates—down by one-quarter is the number of assaults in prison. We believe we are managing the situation very well. 
Ron Mark 
: Is it not a fact that one of the factors exacerbating the problems of managing the large number of inmates and the unacceptable officer-to-inmate ratios is still to this day the wage cuts implemented by the National Government in December 1999 which slashed wages by between $600 to $7000 and entry-level officers’ wages by $12000; and when will this House see prison officers being paid a decent wage so that good ones stay and more sign up and join the service? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The member raises a very good point. In 1999 the conditions for prison officers were severely cut. Since then there have been two wage rounds. The department will begin negotiations with the unions early next year for another wage round. I am sure that all those issues will be debated at that time.