Collins Judith: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Collins Judith: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:13016] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 I would like to speak to a couple of amendments that I have put in. 
The first amendment is to Part 2 and inserts a new clause 8(1)(ba). This clause is all about looking at the powers and functions of the chief executive. My amendment states that part of what the chief executive should be doing is “ensuring that the interests of the victims of prisoners are acknowledged and respected”. These prisoners are of course never going to confront their issues and problems until they acknowledge the wrong they have done and acknowledge the harm they have inflicted on their victims. I think that is a sensible provision and I would like to get support from the Committee on that. 
Clause 25 “Functions of probation officers” should be extended out so that breaches are quickly actioned. We do not want further instances of people committing more offences while they are on probation. We do not want to create a situation where they say that that does not really matter because they are going to jail anyway and as basically prisoners get a discount these days for more and more offences they might as well commit more crimes while they are out and get some more stuff put away because it will not matter. No one will give them a longer sentence because under Phil Goff’s new parole rules they will be out after serving a third of their term. All they have to do is con everyone into thinking they have done a few anger management courses ticked a few boxes gone along to a kapahaka group or something and everyone will think they are good guys now. These guys are not stupid. 
Richard Worth 
: No! 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: They are in fact very very good manipulators of people—extremely good manipulators. They understand the systems. The one thing they do understand is how to get round people and how to get what they want. They are people who have often committed many many crimes before they go anywhere near a jail because it often takes a long time to catch them. 
One of the things we want to change is in clause 55 which covers the information to be given to prisoners about transfers. The Hon Tony Ryall spoke before about the fact that at the moment the managers inform prisoners that they will be shifted and they also inform the inmates’ families—or under this bill the inmates’ local gang members with whom they have a bond. But no they do not inform the victims. We wish to insert a subclause that states: “(4) As soon as the manager informs the prisoner a copy should be sent to the prisoner’s victim(s) if those victim(s) have expressed an interest to be so informed.” That gives the victims an interest in the matter that goes beyond their simply hoping the Department of Corrections has this person locked away somewhere. It is so important that victims know about prisoners’ transfer. 
I would like to turn now to clause 79 which deals with the religious and spiritual needs of the prisoners. Some people would be very interested to know that the chief executive must ensure that in every corrections prison so far as is reasonable and practicable appropriate provision is made for the various religious and spiritual needs of prisoners. Well is that not fantastic? I have to say that if these people had any spiritual or cultural interests they would not be in prison in the first place. What has been put in this bill is absolute twaddle. 
I just compare that with the situation of schools kindergartens hospitals and other Government-run agencies. If we had a provision that said that the spiritual and cultural needs of children in our schools would be looked after that would be interesting. We would know that such a school was an independent school. It would be interesting if we had something like that for kindergartens. We cannot even have Father Christmas appear at kindergartens at Christmas time because that is considered to be culturally insensitive to somebody who is not a Christian. It is absolutely true; in my electorate of Clevedon we have had that happen. No wonder the private childcare centres are booming; it is because of the nonsense that is being force-fed down people’s throats by this Government. Prisoners get rights but ordinary decent law-abiding taxpayer people do not. The children do not.