Potaka TamaCORRECTIONS AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon TAMA POTAKA (Minister for Māori Development) on behalf of the Minister of Corrections: I present a legislative statement on the Corrections Amendment Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon TAMA POTAKA: I move That the Corrections Amendment Bill be now read a second time.First I would like to start by thanking the Justice Committee for its consideration of the Corrections Amendment Bill. The Justice Committee received 72—whitu tekau mā rua—submissions on the bill and heard 19—tekau mā iwa—oral submissions.The bill is important as it modernises the Corrections Act 2004. It aims to improve rehabilitation reintegration and safety in prisons our whare herehere. Corrections operates in a continuously changing environment and the prisoners Corrections manages are increasingly presenting complex issues. Many of these prisoners have histories of violence and antisocial behaviour. The violence and aggression in prisons poses an ongoing challenge for Corrections including for front-line kaimahi or staff. Kaimahi safety is one of my priorities and this bill's new intelligence powers will support not only kaimahi but prisoners and the public to be safer. The new intelligence provisions directly respond to the reality of the wero the challenges that Corrections faces every day and is a key part of this bill. These new provisions give Corrections new and clear powers to improve prison safety.These provisions also include safeguards to ensure transparency and limits of those new powers. As an example a tauira Corrections' recording of prisoner phone or video calls would cover all prisoners but to protect prisoner rights to privacy the focus of monitoring for intelligence purposes will be on prisoners who pose a serious risk of harm to prison safety and the public. In using these powers Corrections will be looking for prisoners who seek to introduce contraband such as drugs tarukino into the prison and to identify prisoners who seek to physically harm other prisoners or members of the public.The bill also helps to ensure the internal disciplinary process in prisons is effective alongside strengthening processes for the authorisation and the use of non-lethal weapons. These are again important tools for staff or kaimahi safety.Rehabilitation is one of the Government's priorities and is very important for this Kāwanatanga. The bill enables limited mixing of remand accused and convicted prisoners for non - offence-based programmes which will support the extension of rehabilitation to remand prisoners.The bill also makes a series of other amendments that improve Corrections' ability to operate prisons whare herehere safely and efficiently; strengthen kaimahi safety; and support prisoner wellbeing. The Justice Committee has strengthened the bill to ensure it provides Corrections with the necessary tools to continue to maintain the safety and security of prisons. Kei te mihi ki te Justice Committee.Tom Rutherford: Hard-working.Hon TAMA POTAKA: Hard-working. I want to be clear that Corrections will continue to do the mahi with hapū and iwi to deliver culturally responsive rehabilitation to improve outcomes for Māori notwithstanding the committee agreeing to the removal of Treaty of Waitangi provisions in the bill. Corrections remains committed to working closely doing the mahi with Māori to continue strengthening its operations to address the over-representation of Māori in the Corrections system. It's good to see the recent appointment of the Māori DCE to his role. For example the Te Mana Wahine Project based at Christchurch Women's Prison is designing a range of interventions with local iwi hapū tangata whenua and Māori providers. One of the initiatives from the project is a 10-week group session guiding wāhine Māori to better understand their own identity to identify their goals and aspirations. At Northland Region Corrections Facility Ngāti Rangi as mana whenua have been integral in the ongoing design of rehabilitative practice at the whare herehere. This includes rongoā tikanga kapa haka support to build positive whānau relationships in the community.With regard to other changes the chief executive tumu kaimahi power to authorise the monitoring of visits will now be unable to be delegated to a prison staff member to recognise its potential to impinge on prisoners' relationships. I know that there are concerns raruraru and āwangawanga about the impact this monitoring could have on family relationships. But this change is important as Corrections knows that some prisoners use these unmonitored visits as an opportunity to have a kōrero about actions that could undermine the safety and good order of the prison.The Justice Committee has also agreed that Corrections should be required to report annually on its use of intelligence powers. This is an important change that will boost transparency and accountability.The komiti has also removed the ability for a prisoner to request a rehearing of a disciplinary charge before a visiting justice when a hearing has proceeded in their absence. This is an important change that will ensure there is a more timely and effective disciplinary process in our prisons. I acknowledge that this may have had some impacts on natural justice which is why Corrections officers will now be required to provide evidence that the prisoner has refused to attend the hearing.The Justice Committee has also made some changes to the process for prisoners segregated to address their risk of self-harm. This bill proposes a requirement for these prisoners to be visited daily by a health professional. While this already happens in practice it's important that the legislation sets this as a requirement. During these visits staff will consider whether the decision to segregate these prisoners should be reviewed and whether their at-risk assessment should be reviewed.The hard-working Justice Committee—very diligent—has replaced references to non-lethal weapons with less lethal weapons. This is in response to feedback from submitters and to recognise guidance released by the United Nations—that austere body—that all weapons used can potentially have fatal consequences. The definition of prisoner calls" has been updated to include video calls in addition to audio calls to better reflect the original policy intent. The bill now provides for the expanded use of body imaging searches of prisoners to further prevent introduction of contraband such as tarukino drugs and cellphones from entering prisons. This will ensure the legislation provides flexibility to adapt future technologies and better supports kaimahi safety. The bill also now exempts communications between prisoners and advocates acting in their statutory role under the Health and Disability Commissioner Act from being monitored for intelligence purposes.I also referred an Amendment Paper to the very professional committee which they agreed be incorporated into the bill. Thank you to the chair of that committee. This paper was one of 100-day commitments. It emphasised the importance of rehabilitation for prisoners. The bill now creates a strong expectation for Corrections to provide remand convicted prisoners access to rehabilitative programmes such as special treatment units for sexual and violent offending. Kei te mihi ki ēnei mahi. [I acknowledge this work.] It also has stronger requirements for Corrections to provide remand prisoners with access to non - offence-based programmes. The bill will help achieve my priorities and support Corrections to achieve its core purpose of improved prison and public safety as well as managing sentences safely securely humanely and effectively. These changes in the bill will help tautoko and support corrections officers in the important mahi that they carry out on a daily basis in prisons. These changes will also contribute to better outcomes for victims by enabling greater oversight of prisoner communications support the hauora or wellbeing of prisoners and ensure our prisons operate effectively and efficiently.I want to conclude by again thanking all those who have contributed to the development of this bill this pire. It is great to see this important mahi progressed to this stage and I look forward to us debating having a taukumekume and a taupatupatu on the bill in more detail during the committee of the whole House. I commend this bill to this Whare this House. Kia ora tātou."