9. Question No. 9—CorrectionsTONI SEVERIN (ACT) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 9—Corrections9. TONI SEVERIN (ACT) to the Minister of Corrections: Is it still the Government's policy to reduce the prison population by 30 percent over 15 years?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): When we became Government there was a prison population crisis—a moral and fiscal failure according to Bill English—which was predicted to see the population balloon to close to 14000 people by now far more than the network could accommodate. The long-term target we set reflected the situation at the time one that could have seen measures such as triple and quadruple bunking and mattresses in prison hallways and the possibility of using mothballed boarding schools out in the community. It is important to remember that Corrections does not decide who is sent to prison or for how long. Their contribution to the reduction in the prison population was through improving administrative processes for people eligible for release and also providing housing. The Government will continue to protect public safety and support the justice system to hold offenders to account and I am progressing no specific policies to further reduce the total prison population.Toni Severin: Has his goal of 30 percent fewer prisoners in jail led to an increase in gang members and gang associates serving sentences in the community on electronic monitoring from 383 in 2017 to 738 this year?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well first of all let's commend the police for doing a sterling job in arresting those people who are committing crime those gang members. The proportion of people in prison who are gang members has increased substantially and because of the increases in arrests I guess judges then are looking at various options for sentencing which does include home detention which does include incarceration as well.Toni Severin: Has his goal of 30 percent fewer prisoners in jail led to a situation where 917 violent offenders are in the community serving an electronically monitored sentence?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well Corrections doesn't determine the sentence a prisoner receives but it has prevented about 3000 people from not being housed in mothballed boarding schools around the country. Now I'd hate to think about the community's safety if that had eventuated as was predicted.Toni Severin: How is his goal of 30 percent fewer prisoners in jail not an experiment with public safety and an example of the Government failing to do its most important job of keeping people safe?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Oh that's an insult to the judiciary who make the decisions about the sentences people receive. Corrections' job is to house the people that judges send there and they do a good job. They also do a great job in making sure people don't reoffend because you can see the reoffending and the re-imprisonment rates have decreased as well.Toni Severin: Isn't it the case that we need more criminals not fewer in prison and will he support ACT's policy of investing $1 billion to build an additional 500 prison beds to ensure dangerous people can be locked away from law-abiding New Zealanders?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No and I hate to think about the amount of taxes they would have to raise and increase and impose on poor working New Zealanders. The operating costs of prisons—I mean it costs billions not just to build a mega-prison an American-style mega-prison like they want. It costs billions as well to operate them huge costs imposed on the community when we just need to really rely on the judiciary to do the job that they've been charged with doing.