Stephenson ToddPAROLE (MANDATORY COMPLETION OF REHABILITATIVE PROGRAMMES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingTODD STEPHENSON (ACT): I move That the Parole (Mandatory Completion of Rehabilitative Programmes) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider this bill.Before I talk about the bill I do just want to take a moment to acknowledge that today was the funeral of our parliamentary colleague Efeso Collins. I didn't know Efeso well but obviously we came into the House together. I remember meeting him in our orientation days in those first exciting few days of being here in Wellington and then enjoying a number of short interactions with him. I do think he would have made an amazing contribution to this House. I just wanted to say that my thoughts and those of ACT are with his family friends and especially his wife and daughter today.I also want to just say in relation to this bill that I want to thank Toni Severin the former ACT MP. This was her bill that I've picked up.It has been longstanding ACT policy that we'd actually like to do something in the prisoner rehabilitation space. Now I know that might seem counterintuitive to some people or their perception of ACT but we do believe in actually giving people a fair go and trying to help them back into the community. I am looking for all parties to support this bill to the first reading. It may not be the perfect solution but I hope that we can have a constructive debate about it and have the select committee look at it.What we are intending to do is provide hope for those incarcerated to rehabilitate themselves and actually reintegrate back into society. We know that is difficult. If you were listening to my maiden speech some of you may know that I did spend a very short time at the bar practising in Dunedin with Judith Ablett Kerr KC.Hon Rachel Brooking: Great city!TODD STEPHENSON: Go Dunedin! And yes I was obviously educated at that wonderful university which I understand is getting a new vice-chancellor soon. In that short time I did get some insights into our criminal justice system and the types of people going through that system.What this bill really wants to do is actually give prisoners a better chance of reintegrating back into society and building a better life for themselves and their families at the end of the sentence. As of 2023 around 56.5 percent of people with serious convictions are reconvicted within two years following release and again another 35.8 percent are reimprisoned after two years following prison. Our recidivism rates in New Zealand are extremely high.I accept that this bill isn't the solution to everything but I think it is an important step and I think we could actually make a real difference by focusing on this. Currently people in prison do have some time on their hands and we believe that we'd like to incentivise people to make better use of that time by completing courses which would give them skills and other rehabilitation programmes which would actually help their prospects after leaving prison. Today for a large number of people—not everyone but for a large number of people—leaving prison we basically give them a small amount of money and put them out the door and say On your way. All the best." We don't necessarily think that's the right approach and we'd like to try and do something to actually support them more.The need for training for people in prison is indisputable. Our own Corrections department estimates that around 60 percent of prisoners have literacy and numeracy skills below that of NCEA level 1—so that's like school certificate for 15-year-olds. One in four prisoners are two steps below the adult learning progressions so they really can't understand basic vocabulary everyday topics and familiarise themselves with information. That is just setting up people for failure when they do have time and we could actually be helping them get upskilled.If you don't have basic skills leaving prison like reading writing arithmetic the ability to open a bank account and the ability to apply for a driver's licence—and obviously over recent years we've identified that even having an ID when you leave prison can be very difficult—it just makes it much much harder to look for a job and do something productive. Often then your only option is to go back to a life of crime—hence the circle continues.Despite the clear benefits I've outlined this time last year less than 20 percent of sentenced prisoners in Corrections-run facilities were attending rehabilitation programmes. I accept that some prisons like Mt Eden have no prisoners enrolled in those programmes or possibly a lack of services.The data gets worse when we consider the approximately 3500 prisoners on remand and my bill does cover prisoners on remand and those who have been sentenced and I'll touch on that again in a minute. These prisoners on remand do not have the same access to programmes as sentenced prisoners and that means that closer to 10 percent of the onsite prison population are actually enrolled in any rehabilitation programme.Of course being enrolled in a programme is one thing but then you actually have to complete it. What we've done with this bill is tried to incentivise prisoners to complete the programme with this being a condition of parole. Programmes designed to turn around serious offenders—one such programme is the special treatment unit for violent offenders—reported a 54 percent completion rate for the year 2022-23. Having a bit of compulsion will try to get that rate up. I understand a programme like that is actually extremely effective but only if you complete it.Another analysis also suggests—and this is from 2016—that Māori participants in these programmes do just as well and in a lot of cases even better than the non-Māori participants. These programmes can be sensitive to cultural needs and make sure that the prisoners are getting something that's relevant to them.Releasing prisoners into the community without these courses where they do have the opportunity to identify what's been causing some of their issues or get skills to help them post-release—obviously a lot of the programmes look at behaviour change and also even having them confront some of the victims of their crimes. We're really wanting to try to break the cycle of reoffending and as I said doing it by actually providing an incentive for prisoners to take these practical steps.I will just talk a little bit about the bill and what it actually does. The bill amends the Parole Act 2002—that's the principal Act—and it adds the definition of "rehabilitative programme" which has the same meaning as the Corrections Act 2004. Again that definition "(a) means a programme designed to reduce reoffending by facilitating rehabilitation of prisoners sentenced to imprisonment and their reintegration into society; and (b) includes any medical psychological social therapeutic cultural educational employment-related rehabilitative or reintegrative programme". You can see there's quite a breadth of programmes that prisoners would be eligible to do.We already are required to have management plans for prisoners under section 51 of the Corrections Act so if a prisoner is sentenced for more than two months on remand or in custody or for a prison sentence of more than two months then they do have to have one of these plans and in that plan it actually identifies their specific needs and then the programmes can be tailored to it. So we do have a mechanism for doing this and so I think we can move it forward. The bill would then have these programmes being completed as a part of a condition before parole could actually be considered and the Parole Board can move their parole date forward.I accept there are likely to be some capacity and operational issues in what I'm putting forward but I believe that the select committee is well placed to look at these issues and how they can be addressed and hopefully even make some improvements to what I'm putting forward.ACT is doing this because we actually want to give those in our prison system the best possible chance to become productive members of society. We're not just about the stick; we want to do something practical. That's why we're putting this bill forward and I do commend it to the House. I hope we can have a useful debate and get some support. Thank you."