Young Jonathan: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Young Jonathan: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8139. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I very much appreciated the sentiments of the Hon Dr Pita Sharples in his speech. I believe his speech highlighted one of the great advantages that the private management of prisons enables in terms of development and true great results. 
I want to talk about the decency agenda that one of the previous speakers from Labour asked me to speak more on. I read a quote from a Labour MP who spoke during the parliamentary debate on offender management in the UK. I will quote the UK director of prisons from Her Majesty’s Prison Service Phil Wheatley. He was asked: “What does decency in prisons mean to you?”. Phil Wheatley replied: “Fair and consistent treatment of prisoners—doing time is hard and it is not our job to make it any harder. Prisoners have to rely on staff intervention and cooperation so it is vital they are never unfairly treated or refused what they are entitled. Telling a prisoner you can’t help because you’re busy when actually you’re talking to your colleague about your holiday plans is not decent behaviour. Human treatment and delivering promised standards for providing prisoners with a reasonable quality of life are also part of the decency agenda as is treating prisoners within the law—no one should be punished outside the rules. Finally it means getting the basics right—providing clean properly equipped and maintained facilities and protecting prisoners from others and themselves.” 
He was asked further: “How has the decency agenda helped with suicide prevention which still remains high on the agenda?”. He said: “The Service has been doing a lot of work with Cambridge University and research has shown that if prisoners—many with mental health problems serious drug problems and many facing the possibility of long sentences—arrive at a good safe orderly prison with good regimes and good staff prisoner relationships it can reduce the distress experienced by prisoners which can lead to suicide or self-harm.” Finally he said: “There is a lot of work to be done but we are well placed to implement improvements.” He is acknowledging that there is room for improvement. 
I come back to the quote from Gerry Sutcliffe. He said that the first private prison opened in 1992 and there are now 11 such prisons operating in England and Wales holding about 10 percent of the prison population. The companies that provide those services have developed a strong track record of delivery and are driving forward the decency agenda as well as introducing innovation and increasing value for money in public sector prisons. So we see a combination of private and public working together to improve conditions for prisoners as well as introducing innovation which increases value for money in the public sector prisons—exactly what the Hon Pita Sharples was talking about. 
I have visited a number of prisons and every week a number of years ago I visited inmates in Block B of Paremoremo prison which is now Auckland prison. I have seen the quality of care that New Zealand prison staff offer. I was privileged last Friday to give awards to our prison staff in New Plymouth. They are doing a good job. This bill is about creating opportunity for private management to work together with the public to bring innovation and improvement in our prison service. I believe that this bill has great quality in it and has enabled us to move forward. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.