12. Question No. 12—CorrectionsSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 12—Corrections12. SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of Corrections: Is he satisfied with the decisions and actions made by the Department of Corrections during COVID-19?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Unlike many other countries around the world here in New Zealand we were able to keep COVID-19 from breaking out in our prisons. That was due to the strict health and safety measures we put in place and the ability of corrections to implement measures like social distancing in what is a very very complex environment. I made clear from the outset that my expectation was that a prisoner's lawful rights were to be upheld regardless of the situation. In seeking further assurance around this matter I asked Corrections to undertake a national review of their compliance with the minimum prisoner entitlement of one hour of daily exercise. This found that 96 percent of people in prison had received their minimum entitlement or more. In the other 4 percent of the cases decisions were made in line with prisoner operation manual guidance.Simeon Brown: How many offenders have had release conditions varied or discharged by probation officers whilst the Epidemic Preparedness (Epidemic Management—COVID-19) Parole Act 2002 and Sentencing Act 2002 Notice 2020 was in force?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well that's a very specific question. Corrections doesn't have the ability to release prisoners—that is either up to a judge when they're hearing bail conditions or the Parole Board or a prisoner reaches the statutory release date.Simeon Brown: How many offenders had community service hours remitted by probation officers whilst the epidemic preparedness notice was in force?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well it's very difficult for offenders in the community to do hours when they're in lockdown so the situation was made so that they could do their hours post-lockdown.Priyanca Radhakrishnan: What effect if any did COVID-19 have on the Minister's goal of reducing the prison population safely by 30 percent over 15 years?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well no matter how you look at it the prison population is safely reducing meaning we are well on track to achieve our goals. Last week the Ministry of Justice released its updated prison population projections. In 2017 under the previous Government those projections showed that in 2020 the prison population could reach over 12000. The 2019 projections show that number dropping to around 10000. The actual number of prisoners is today 9530. That is down from a peak of 10820. We did say that we would try to safely reduce the prison population by 30 percent over 15 years so just to be crystal clear—because the member opposite got a little confused between projections and actual numbers last week—projected numbers of prisoners have dropped by around 2000. Actual numbers of prisoners have dropped by 1290.Simeon Brown: Supplementary on the actual question. Is he telling the House that the COVID—SPEAKER: Order! Order! I think what I'm going to rule is that there were offences on both sides and I'm going to ask the member to start his question again without the additional comment. I'll say that members on the Government side—if they hadn't interjected it would have been the end of the question.Simeon Brown: Is he telling the House that the COVID-19 lockdown was for everyone except for those who had their release conditions varied or community service sentences remitted?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No.Hon David Parker: Is the Minister able to confirm that the justice system including Corrections went to a great deal of effort in order to ensure that parole hearings still took place during the COVID lockdown period using audiovisual facilities?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Yes I can confirm that. I mean as I said in the answer to my primary question it was a very very complex situation. Corrections has done a fantastic job in making sure that prisoners' and offenders' cases were still heard and that justice was seen to be done.