Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:638;Page:8404] 
10.  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Does he have confidence in his department; if so why? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 Yes but there is always room for improvement. 
Simon Power 
: What does it say about the management of his prisons when a former officer claimed on  
One News 
 last night that guards used access to cellphones drugs gang paraphernalia and conjugal visits in order to “buy good behaviour” from inmates “on a constant basis” while management turned a blind eye? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I have inquired whether management was informed by this person of any such allegations at any stage. I am informed that no such information was provided to management. I remind the member that these are allegations. We welcome any information that that individual can provide to Mr Patten who is carrying out an independent inquiry at Rimutaka Prison at this moment. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Can the Minister confirm in respect of the use of drugs as raised by Mr Power that in the dying days of the last National administration 61 percent of inmates tested for drugs in Rangipo prison showed positive and that in the last year—1999—an inmate was murdered because there was a gang war within the prison between those supplying LSD alcohol and marijuana? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I can confirm those outrageous statistics and I remind the member that we have spent a huge amount of money improving the security systems within our prisons. We have reduced the rate of drug offending which is now down to an estimated 15 percent and at one prison that rate is down to 13 percent. I believe that is a huge improvement. 
Simon Power 
: Why as was alleged last night is contraband being used as a management tool to keep inmates quiet and how can this behaviour from Government employees be condoned when it involves not only items that prisoners cannot access—because they are supposed to have lost their liberty—but also illegal items? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: No such behaviour would be condoned in any way. These are allegations and I encourage the individual who has made them to take the information to Mr Patten to have them thoroughly investigated. 
Simon Power 
: What is the Minister’s response to claims made by the prison guard on  
One News 
 last night that conjugal visits could be arranged for inmates in exchange for monetary payments to guards and does allowing these visits not create a massive breach of security? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I remind that member before he goes on that I am informed that those allegations were made by someone who was arrested by the police. 
Simon Power 
: How can the Minister have confidence in his chief executive Barry Matthews who said in the weekend that “It would be foolish to think it’s just a few bad apples because there’s clearly been more than one or two people involved and therefore one has to also say it has to be the culture …” yet told the  
New Zealand Herald 
 a month ago 
that the number of prison staff involved in corruption represented “just a few bad apples”? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Because that is the situation. We have 11 staff currently stood down at Rimutaka Prison and we have two at Christchurch Prison. Wherever there are indications of inappropriate behaviour or illegal behaviour we expect prison managers to follow it up to stand those individuals down and to ultimately prosecute them. 
Simon Power 
: Why is his department seeking tenders to pay a contractor $180000 plus GST to watch guards at Auckland women’s prison talking to inmates; and is this initiative simply consistent with a prison that was being built for 3 years before the costs to finalise it were established—those costs being $100 million over the original estimate—and consistent with a department that is on track to spend $1 million a month on consultants? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The Government has spent $158 million building a 286-bed prison to securely contain rehabilitate and reintegrate the female prisoners who are sent there. 
Simon Power 
: It was supposed to cost $57 million. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: The evaluation the member refers to is to measure the gains that the new prisons and systems are providing for the corrections system. 
Ron Mark 
: Is not the most important thing right now in terms of restoring public confidence in the Department of Corrections and the justice system that we see thorough investigations take place; that we see people who have been identified as having broken the law prosecuted; that convicted people are put in prison regardless of what office they might hold in the Department of Corrections today or in the past; and that those people are brought to account by the law? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Absolutely and it is my determination and that of the chief executive Barry Matthews to do exactly that.