Huo RaymondRAYMOND HUO (Labour): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to take a call to support the Corrections Amendment Bill. It's particularly interesting to follow the National member who just resumed his seat Todd Muller. To partially cover the issues he just raised I would like to read a paragraph from the Department of Corrections annual report. From the annual report 2016 to 2017 we have learnt that The prison muster grew by over 700 over the last year the equivalent of a medium-sized prison. In the last two years there has been a 16.7 percent increase in the prison population. We now have more than 10200 people in 18 prisons across New Zealand and a further 30000 people are on community-based sentences."So what does that tell us? Where do those stats position us? Those statistics provide us with a picture of the size and scope of the problems or issues we're dealing with. Like the Minister who introduced the bill to the House last night Stuart Nash said we're not only talking about prisons; we're also talking about our staff members talking about officers and Department of Corrections people on the ground. They are working hard to ensure the safety of our community.Now back to this bill. One issue I do want to bring to the House's attention as other members have already done is with regard to the mental health issue. Mental health issues are very common among those in our prisons. The following data is from my learned colleague Dr Liz Craig and I thank Dr Craig for her hard work and knowledge. In 2015 a corrections survey of 1200 prisoners spread across 13 prisons found that 62 percent had either mental health issues or a substance use disorder and that 20 percent had both. Seven percent reported having psychotic symptoms like hearing voices or seeing things that were not real and 6 percent had previously attempted suicide. Since 2000 on average corrections have experienced between three and six suicides in prisons each year. In 2015 and 2016 there were 11 while in 2016 to 2017 there was one but in 2016-17 over 3000 prisoners were placed in an at-risk unit.Section 60 of the Corrections Act "Segregation for [the] purpose of medical oversight" currently deals with prisoners with physical health issues or who are at risk of self-harm but those provisions or relevant sections create a kind of ambiguity and are not terribly clear in terms of the issues we're dealing with. This bill provides a much clearer framework for managing prisoners at risk of self-harm. It includes eight new sections to ensure our prisoners are assessed properly and if they do need to be segregated they are checked on regularly and plans are put in place for their care and management.The bill also covers a lot of other areas including first of all making it a disciplinary offence for a prisoner to tattoo another prisoner or consenting to receive a tattoo from another or tattoo themselves. Secondly it amends the definition of a drug to align with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 so prisoners can be tested for a wider range of drugs including synthetic cannabis and be charged with a disciplinary offence in the event of a positive test. Thirdly it allows for the use of imaging technology like body scanners to more effectively detect contraband including drugs and weapons and reduce reliance on rub-down or strip searches. These changes will help keep prisons free from drugs and weapons and will help make the prisons safer and also make it safer for prisoners and staff. With those notes I commend this bill to the House."