King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:643;Page:12771] 
6.  
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
 on behalf of  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
to the Minister of Corrections 
: Does he have confidence in his department; if so why? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Acting Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 In general yes. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Why was convicted axe murderer John Ericson considered a minimum security prisoner able to work unsupervised in an unsecured plant nursery and was this an acceptable risk to public safety when he was able to simply walk away from the work leading to a 26-hour manhunt police cordons around Wellington suburbs and raids by the armed offenders squad? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: John Ericson was considered a minimum risk having gone through the classification process that exists in the corrections system whereby a person goes in with a classification. In this case he went in with a classification of high-medium in 2000. By May 2005 his classification had been reduced to minimum. Under a minimum classification he was able to work outside the prison. This time he was working in the prison nursery about 30 metres from the prison when he escaped. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Is the Minister satisfied that the Department of Corrections has got its assessment procedures right given that this man John Ericson hacked his wife to death by beating her 22 times with an axe that he has been described by the police as dangerous and that there has been a further police assessment of him stating: “No crime is more violent than murder. The very nature of his crime makes him a risk.”; and how then does the Minister reconcile the department’s assessment of Mr Ericson with the police’s understanding of Mr Ericson? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The classification system may well need to be looked at. All I can say is that it was put in place in 1991 as a pilot and was then put in permanently in 1992. This classification system has been used for I would say hundreds of prisoners who have been reclassified during their time in prison including murderers under a National Government and it has been seen to work for those prisoners. It has worked for many years under this Government. Errors will at times be made. I can say that when Mr Ericson is able to go before the Parole Board in 2009 he now faces a very different future from the one he might have faced. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Does the Minister agree with two of her department’s spokespeople who stated: “John Ericson let us down. He breached the trust we placed in him.”; and what would she be saying now if John Ericson had not been apprehended by the police’s cordoning off a Wellington suburb bringing out the armed offenders squad and eventually apprehending him but had taken an axe to another New Zealander? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The Department of Corrections would be saying that research shows that people released from a high-security environment are more likely to reoffend and are less likely to be reintegrated back into society. The reason why there is a classification process is to take people down and give them the opportunity to be able to get back into society because one day they will do that. One day they will go back into society under a system based on good research—a system that was supported for 9 years by the previous National Government and has since continued to be supported by this Government. That system has worked for many many prisoners. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can the Minister confirm that as recently as June of this year a convicted kidnapper and armed robber Reon Kiwi also walked away from gardening duty outside Wellington Prison forcing the lockdown of a local primary school; and as this escape was also the subject of an internal review why did that internal review not pick up the faults in the assessment system? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I cannot comment on the review but I can tell this House—and I know that members will be very interested in this—that the rate of all escapes including break-outs non-return from temporary release and other escapes has significantly declined in the last 10 years. In fact there has been an 84 percent reduction in the number of escapes in the last 10 years with most of that reduction being under a Labour Government. I am pleased to see that only a few people do escape but obviously there are some people who let the system down. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Why did the Minister’s department tell yesterday’s court hearing that John Ericson was not armed “in any way” yet he was found with an improvised knife made from a Stanley blade and admitted possessing other offensive weapons when he was in court; and why is a convicted axe murderer able to access that sort of weaponry in our prisons? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I do not have that information at hand. I am unable to answer the question.