O'Connor Damien: Urgent Debates — Corrections Department—Ombudsmen’s Report 
O'Connor Damien: Urgent Debates — Corrections Department—Ombudsmen’s Report 
[Volume:639;Page:9824] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 The death of Liam Ashley was a tragic event. It should never have occurred and it has been the subject of a number of investigations that have identified a number of mistakes that should not have occurred. I am determined to make the changes to the Department of Corrections to prevent such a tragedy occurring in the future. The safety of prisoners was the prime focus of this Ombudsmen’s report. However the safety of the community through the responsibility of the Department of Corrections must be paramount for any administration in overseeing corrections. The safety of staff must be considered as well as the Ombudsmen rightly point out. The safety of prisoners is also our responsibility. 
The Ombudsmen moved further on to point to areas of comfort and to what he considers inappropriate conditions governing the transportation of prisoners. We accept this report the spirit in which it is written and the recommendations. We have already agreed to and moved on the majority of recommendations. However there are still some we will need to work through to ensure that we can practically and honestly implement them in a consistent way. 
My prime focus is the safety of prisoners. That is why we will introduce restraints so that the terrible assault that took place in the back of that prison van by one George Baker cannot occur again because in future the arms and wrists of prisoners will be constrained when inside prison vans unless there is justifiable reason not to do so. 
We need to ensure that the processes surrounding prison transportation are robust. The member has pointed to a number of issues rightfully raised by the Ombudsmen in regard to national standards in prison transportation. The fact is that the previous Government tried to introduce privatisation by signing with Chubb a contract for prisoner transportation and custodial services in Auckland and Northland. That was just an example of the regime that operated back through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. It is one where each prison decided to make calls on the types of vehicles processes and procedures for its prisoner transportation. I consider that to be unsatisfactory. That is why we will accept have accepted and have moved on the recommendations in the Ombudsmen’s report regarding national standards. 
The Ombudsmen refer to an issue of directives from within the department to improve the standards laid down in 2004. The member who has just spoken accuses the department of trying to deceive the Ombudsmen. I do not accept that. I think inadequate information went across to the Office of the Ombudsmen and from the information I have seen and read I believe that it is easy for misinterpretation to occur. I am determined to sort out that matter and to ensure that the Office of the Ombudsmen does have confidence in the information provided to him. I respect the independence of the Chief Ombudsman’s office and his right to investigate complaints and to look into any procedures that operate through the corrections system. It is important that he has confidence in that process and I will investigate and clarify the points raised in this report. 
The tragic loss of Liam Ashley and the prevention of any such tragedy in the future should be the prime focus of this report and as I have said it is. I assure this House and the people of New Zealand that we acted immediately following that tragic event to make changes. I issued an instruction to make sure that no one under the age of 18 years should be transported in a compartment with anyone over the age of 18 years. That happened immediately. I issued instructions to clarify the procedures the policy and all the forms related to prisoner transportation so that no confusion could occur in the future regarding the risk status or any other conditions that should apply to any prisoner while in transportation. 
 We have gone through and reviewed our entire system. We now have an opportunity provided by Chubb’s announcement that it wishes to exit its responsibilities in this area to explore the possibility of taking that service back in under the department’s arm. I intend to proceed with investigation of that. Chubb’s staff should not be alarmed. We still need personnel who have the skills who have the training who understand the procedures and who have the support from head office to carry out the over 200000 transportations that occur each and every year. 
The Ombudsmen’s report refers to issues which some have called inhumane that relate to the comfort of prisoners while being transported around the country. Three percent of transportations occur for longer than 1 hour. There are recommendations in the report that relate to squabs seatbelts speeding comfort stops the provision of water and the provision of food. We accept those recommendations. However the implementation of each and every one of those has to be done in a way that first considers the security of the community and its confidence in our ability to keep dangerous prisoners locked up. We will not stop for toilet breaks whenever a prisoner wants to. That is simply unacceptable. However the Ombudsmen recommend that we take that on board and we will work through that with them so we can reach agreement on what an acceptable practice is. Once again the security of the public of the staff and of the prisoners themselves is paramount. 
The ability for prisoners to have access to escape hatches in the rare event of a traffic accident is something we accept and that is something the Ombudsmen have recommended. But we have to work through that very very carefully. We will not allow prisoners to walk out of prisoner vans at their will. As I have said it is important that we have the confidence of the community—that none of these changes will lead to further security breaches as has occurred in the past in both Department of Corrections and Chubb vans. 
This Government is committed to running a fair efficient secure and effective corrections system. As Minister I am committed to improving the system. I acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the past but I will ensure that we will run a better system that minimises the opportunities for those mistakes in the future. There has been a head office restructure. We are reviewing public prison services to ensure that the alignment of responsibilities of instructions and of accountability is quite clear from top to bottom so that front-line officers—be they involved in transportation in health services or in custodial services—know whom they can go to for support whom they have to answer to for their performance and what the objectives of their jobs are. 
We are committed to a secure prison system but we have also clearly identified through effective interventions that we want to better rehabilitate and reintegrate prisoners back into the community at the end of their sentences. We have not lost sight of that. While improving the security of prisoners both within the prisons and through the transportation system and doing it in a humane way we are also conscious of the fact that prisoners have to be encouraged to rehabilitate themselves and to take the opportunities that we are now providing through the corrections system. 
We have opened up two new drug and alcohol units and we intend to open up two more. I have issued instructions for more community-based sentences for drug and alcohol offences. We are making changes to contraband regulations. It is not appropriate that anyone should attempt to smuggle into prisons in whatever way any form of contraband drug cellphone or whatever. We need to change the system and we have. We will continue to work through the issues. Barry Matthews has a job on his hands to make sure that the head office restructure delivers effective improved management of the corrections system. I accept that mistakes have been made. The Ombudsmen have identified some of those. We will clarify the issue of information flow between the Department of Corrections and the Ombudsmen and report back. 
I assure the public that we have a robust corrections system and that each and every person in that system will be focused on improving the culture on improving his or her performance and on making sure that no such tragic events as the death of Liam Ashley will occur in the future. Out of respect for him and for his family who have had to go through this very difficult time I want to assure the Ashley family that the recommendations that have come through this report will be carried through that we have agreed to them for the most part and that we will work through the few that require further implementation and that we will show due respect to them and to their son.