Collins JudithCORRECTIONS (ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF OFFENDERS) AMENDMENT BILLPAROLE (ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF OFFENDERS) AMENDMENT BILLSENTENCING (ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF OFFENDERS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingsHon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Corrections): I move That the Corrections (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill the Parole (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill and the Sentencing (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This Government is committed to public safety and the protection of victims and on this basis we are supporting the Parole (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill the Corrections (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill and the Sentencing (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill and that they now be read a third time. These bills honour the commitment that we have made to the people of New Zealand. They enable courts to impose electronic monitoring for a wider range of offences and orders than is currently possible and they confirm that prisoners given permission to go outside the secure perimeter of the prison may be electronically monitored.Electronic monitoring provides a means of actively monitoring the compliance of offenders in the community with conditions imposed by the Parole Board or the courts. This helps deter offenders from further offending by providing information on their whereabouts. It also enables police and the Department of Corrections to act swiftly when non-compliance is detected. These bills were originally introduced as one bill the Electronic Monitoring of Offenders Legislation Bill which was divided into three bills by the Committee of the whole House. The first bill the Sentencing (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill removes a legislative barrier to the use of electronic monitoring for offenders released after serving a short term of imprisonment and offenders sentenced to intensive supervision. Electronic monitoring plays an important part in deterring further offending and detecting breaches of conditions about where an offender may live and places they may or may not visit. Without electronic monitoring these conditions are less effective because breaches are much harder to detect.The Sentencing Act explicitly states that electronic monitoring may not be imposed by a court as part of a sentence of intensive supervision or as a release condition for an offender sentenced to prison for 2 years or less. This bill removes that barrier. It provides the courts and enforcement authorities with an additional tool to help ensure that an offender released from a short term of imprisonment complies with the conditions imposed as a part of that sentence. It will also help ensure that an offender serving a sentence of intensive supervision complies with the conditions imposed as part of that sentence. Concerns were raised during the select committee process regarding the scope of electronic monitoring privacy issues and whether it is suitable for intensive supervision and release conditions. These concerns have been met by safeguards designed to ensure that the new powers are used in an appropriate manner including specifying that suitability of electronic monitoring must be canvassed in a pre-sentence report defining the purposes of an electronic monitoring condition as deterring breaches of conditions that prohibit entry into specified places or areas and monitoring compliance with such conditions and specifying the permitted uses of information collected by electronic monitoring.The second bill is the Corrections (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill. This bill clarifies the Department of Corrections' ability to electronically monitor a prisoner who is during their sentence permitted outside the secure perimeter of a prison. Most prisoners spend their time within a secure perimeter fence. However on occasions it is necessary for a small number of prisoners to go outside that perimeter fence. Examples include where a prisoner goes to hospital for treatment and is escorted by a corrections officer where a prisoner is working in a prison but outside the secure perimeter or where a prisoner towards the end of a sentence is permitted to work outside the prison as part of the prisoner's transition back into the community in a safe and controlled manner. Ensuring that prisoners outside the secure perimeter are electronically monitored will deter escape attempts and if an escape is attempted it helps ensure early detection and a quick response from both police and corrections officers.Thirdly the Parole (Electronic Monitoring of Offenders) Amendment Bill clarifies the special conditions relating to electronic monitoring of offenders following their release from prison or extended supervision orders. The new provisions make it clear that offenders are not only required to have electronic monitoring equipment attached to them but must also comply with written instructions including for example to regularly charge the equipment.We are committed to reducing the harm and volume of offending. Electronically monitoring offenders in concert with a range of other measures can make a significant contribution to maintaining public order and safety and indirectly to rehabilitating certain offenders. These three bills will enable better utilisation of the benefits of electronic monitoring by allowing it to be imposed firstly as a special condition of release from a short-term sentence of imprisonment and as a special condition of a sentence of intensive supervision and secondly to monitor prisoners who are permitted to be outside the secure perimeter of a prison. They also clarify an offender's obligations while subject to electronic monitoring. I commend these bills to the House.