Kedgley Sue: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kedgley Sue: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8186. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to make a number of points about the Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill. The first is that we have been told by the Associate Minister of Corrections—and I thank him for responding to some of those questions—that we should not worry because prisoners will be held in court cells for only 4 days at a time. I thought that that was interesting so I looked through the bill and I found nothing in it that says they are to be used for only 4 days at a time. There is nothing about that in this bill. There is no regulation and no legislation to require that prisoners will be held for 4 days only in court cells. Let us be absolutely clear about that. The regulatory impact statement says that Cabinet has agreed that prisoners will be there for 4 days only. But what will happen if it has another meeting and agrees to extend that time? Cabinet can extend it without regulation without legislation without even having to go through the charade of ramming another bill through Parliament under urgency and without allowing any submissions to be made. It can just quietly agree to extend the time period way beyond 4 days. Let people be absolutely clear that nothing in this bill states that this measure is for 4 days only. 
The second point which my colleague pointed out very well is that the Government has said that this measure is just temporary. We are told we should not worry because it is just temporary. But the regulatory impact statement says this option needs to be available on an ongoing basis so let us at least have a little honesty in this debate. This measure is a permanent one that will be used to convert courts into prisons. It is permanent—it will be used on an ongoing basis. The spin says it is temporary; the spin is that the time period will be 4 days only. But nothing in the bill limits the practice to 4 days and the issue of prison overcrowding will be ongoing. 
One cannot help but wonder what the Government will do next. Once it has converted court cells into prisons where will it go next? Will prisoners come to Parliament? There are some spare select committee rooms here. Perhaps we could convert those into cells. At least we have some facilities here; at least prisoners could have showers here. At least they would not have to travel for 3 hours to have a shower as we have been told would be the case with many of the court cells and at least they could get their food from Bellamy’s. I think that would be a much more cost-effective option than the use of court cells. Furthermore we have security here so we could even double up on security. So my suggestion is that we start by looking at using Parliament before we look at using court cells. 
One of the things that astonished me is that the Associate Minister himself—in fact both the Ministers who have spoken—acknowledged that there are huge issues here. There are huge unanswered questions. Nobody knows— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Someone talked to the Associate Minister. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: Yes the Associate Minister says he does not know the answers to these questions. We have been told that prisoners will travel to the nearest prison to have their shower but as some of my colleagues said that could mean travelling for 3 hours. There is a world of difference between a prisoner going to a court cell for a few hours and a prisoner being kept in a court cell for 4 days and 4 nights. My prediction is that it will be for 4 months—it will be ongoing. Nothing in the bill restricts the length of stay to 4 days. 
We have all those unanswered questions. The Associate Minister himself says there are serious security issues here. The court cells are not built as prison cells so there are huge security issues. The court cells are staffed by court staff. Will we suddenly have prison guards coming in from Rimutaka Prison and so on to patrol and to look after prisoners who are holed up in the court cells? We do not have answers to any of these questions. This is astonishing. A bill is being rammed through Parliament in the dead of night—actually during the day I must admit—and the Government has allowed not one New Zealander to be consulted on it.