Clendon David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Clendon David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:678;Page:1291] 
11. 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Does she agree with the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice report that states “there is no evidence that on average prison is more cost-effective at preventing reoffending than community sentences.”? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 I would note that the quote in the primary question refers only to the UK justice system and comes from its National Audit Office and I am not prepared to make a judgment on the effectiveness or otherwise of the prison system in the UK. I am advised that there is no strong New Zealand evidence either way regarding the cost-effectiveness of prison over community sentences with regard to reoffending. But one thing I do know for certain is that people in prison cannot reoffend against members of the public while they are in prison and over 70 percent of the people in our prisons are there for violent sexual or drug offences. Those people are dangerous and our priority is to keep communities safe.  
David Clendon 
: Does the Minister agree that more spending on drug and alcohol treatment mental health services rehabilitation and reintegration programmes and less on incarceration would deliver better social and economic outcomes for New Zealand; if not why not? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I repeat: this Government is firstly committed to keeping the public safe from dangerous offenders. However we are also committed to reducing reoffending and we are working on a range of ways that we can do that but there is no one silver bullet to reduce reoffending. 
David Clendon 
: On what basis did the Minister decide to spend $900 million on a new prison in South Auckland while spending only a fraction of that amount a few million dollars a year on rehabilitation and reintegration services?  
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I presume the member is referring to the new prison to be built at Wiri. We do need a new prison in Auckland to cater for the population growth in Auckland. We currently house about 1000 Auckland prisoners outside of Auckland in other parts of the country. We do need to upgrade the prison network itself so that rehabilitation is easier because the actual physical construction and design of prisons aids with rehabilitation. We also need to make sure that we have adequate beds in case of another disaster like the Christchurch earthquake when we had to move prisoners out. Forecast figures are just that and currently we are tracking above the forecast figures.  
David Clendon 
: Can the Minister tell us how the building of a $900 million 960-bed prison will help reduce the rate of Maori incarceration currently accounting for 51 percent of the prison population making Maori in New Zealand more likely to be incarcerated than African-Americans in the United States? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: The actual building of Wiri itself—as I said there is no silver bullet to address bringing down the rates of reoffending but there is a huge range of work under way at the moment to improve Maori offending rates like the Drivers of Crime work that this Government has been working on for the past 3 years. There are currently five Maori focus units. There are two Whare Oranga Ake in prisons and the private contract for Wiri does include a particular focus on reducing reoffending for Maori. 
David Clendon 
: I seek leave to table a document a report from the National Audit Office in the UK to the House of Commons Justice Committee dated February 2012 and entitled  
Comparing International Criminal Justice Systems 
. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Charles Chauvel 
: Has the Minister seen the commentary from the group Rethinking Crime and Punishment on the report referred to in the primary question indicating that if she were to reach an imprisonment level of 150 per 100000 people she could save $200 million a year in the Department of Corrections budget and if so what is her view of that group’s recommendations? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I have not seen that group’s recommendations. However as I stated previously firstly this Government is determined to ensure that those dangerous people are locked up and the community is kept safe but we are also committed to reducing the reoffending rate and that is why the contract to build the new Wiri prison has a huge focus on the performance of that prison in terms of reducing reoffending. 
Charles Chauvel 
: I seek leave to table a summary of the recommendations of the group Rethinking Crime and Punishment on the National Audit Office report referred to in the primary question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.