Goff Phil: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Goff Phil: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:650;Page:18792] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 I move  
That the Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. First I thank Sue Bradford for bringing this bill into the House as a member’s bill and I also thank the Law and Order Committee for the very bipartisan way in which it addressed the issues in the bill and for the thought and work the committee members put into improving it. This bill is being moved for a third reading by me because it is now a Government bill. 
The bill is really about acting in the best interests of the children of women offenders. It is about improving the life chances of some of our most vulnerable citizens. I welcome the clarification of that purpose through the proposed amendments that the committee endorsed. I also thank Sue Bradford and Parliament for supporting the amendment that I moved in Supplementary Order Paper 174. 
Back in the second reading of this bill I raised concerns not about the bill’s purpose but rather about the costs of implementing the changes required by it. When I consulted with the Department of Corrections its officials advised me that to fully meet the needs of women prisoners with children up to 2 years of age it would require an additional 24 places in three prisons which would have to be specifically designed and they put a cost on that of more than $1 million per place provided. When we look at that level of cost then we have to consider questions of priority against other needs including the benefits that for example that level of expenditure might deliver if directed to areas such as preventive work—to keep women out of prison in the first place—or programmes to prevent reoffending. 
I went back to the Department of Corrections and I asked it to come up with a more affordable way of delivering on the purpose of this bill. I also met with Sue Bradford at that time and we discussed together the options that might be available but that were less prohibitively costly and that would allow us to move quite early on the implementation of steps to deliver on the bill and have more immediate positive outcomes. We came up with a proposal to provide eight places in Auckland and Christchurch women’s prisons at a total cost of about $2 million in capital and with an ongoing operating expenditure of around $1.5 million. To implement that alternative required an amendment to the bill and Supplementary Order Paper 174 amended subsection (1) of section 81C as inserted by clause 5 to make the construction of accommodation for women prisoners with children who are less than 2 years of age subject to the availability of resources. That amendment means that the Government can now implement the bill in a more considered manner and ensure that the best interests of children are adequately protected. 
The amendment also allows for consideration firstly to be given to the impact the new community-based sentences are having on judges’ sentencing decisions and to the number of women being sent to prison. We now have the option of electronic monitoring—the ability to have people serve detention within their own homes—and in the case of those women with children who do not constitute a risk to the community this is obviously a preferable alternative. Ideally the new sentences will mean that fewer women offenders with dependent children will receive a prison sentence. Indications are that judges are using community-based sentences more when convicting women offenders. Between May 2007 and April 2008 4.5 percent of women convicted received a prison sentence. That is significantly down from a peak in 2004-05 when 7.4 percent of all women convicted received prison sentences. In the meantime it will be possible to provide a total of eight places at the Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility and the Christchurch Women’s Prison. The amendment allows us to take the time to assess the ongoing benefits of allowing children up to the age of 2 years to reside in prison with their mothers and how best to run the programmes that will surround that. 
This bill is a response to Parliament’s awareness that when women with dependent children are sent to prison their children may suffer as a consequence. The children are innocent yet they may be the victims of their mothers’ crimes well into their adult years. Children deserve better than that. The Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill is one way to reduce the impact of maternal imprisonment on children and it is supported by the Government for this reason. Again in finishing I acknowledge the strong cross-party support for this bill and commend it to the House.