2. Question No. 2—CorrectionsRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 2—Corrections2. RAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister of Corrections: What actions if any is he taking in response to a recent report from the independent Office of the Inspectorate which found that 29 percent of all prisoners experienced solitary confinement over a 12month period seriously impacting on the wellbeing of people in prison and their families?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): It's always my expectation that Corrections manages prisoners safely and humanely. Corrections' front-line staff work with some of the most challenging people in society so isolation is a necessary tool in prisons to ensure both staff and prisoners' safety especially as this investigation was conducted from October 2020 to September 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Staff have obligations to public safety the safety of their colleagues and the welfare of prisoners. That can at times lead to choices with very limited options. However I absolutely agree with the report that being isolated for longer periods of time can have a negative impact on the prisoner and their whānau and more needs to be done to minimise that. Corrections has accepted all seven of the report's recommendations and I'll work to ensure that both the short- and long-term responses to the recommendations progress as quickly as possible.Rawiri Waititi: Does he believe that it is acceptable that a significant number of prisoners—disproportionately Māori—experience solitary confinement for months on end and in some cases in excess of a year?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: I'm always concerned about the over-representation of Māori in prison and related statistics which is why I launched a new strategy for Corrections in 2019 with a significant focus on this issue but this is something that requires long-term change across the justice system and I've made my expectations clear that Corrections manages all prisoners safely and humanely.Rawiri Waititi: So what is he doing about the fact that these findings confirmed that Aotearoa is in breach of international law—the Nelson Mandela Rules which prohibit solitary confinement in excess of 15 days—and is Hōkai Rangi working?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Yes.Rawiri Waititi: How can he expect that prisoners will receive the necessary rehabilitation and recovery support in order to reduce reoffending and risk to communities if they are stuck in solitary confinement which has been proven to cause depression anxiety panic attacks anger irritability perceptual distortion and paranoia?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: There's quite a lot in there so I'll address one part of it. We are making progress. In terms of the Māori resentencing rate that has decreased by 6.4 percentage points from 2014 and 2015 to 2021 and 2022 and the Māori re-imprisonment rate has dropped nearly 5 percent in the same period while all the while the overall Māori imprisonment rate has declined.Rawiri Waititi: When will he be able to guarantee to this House that staff shortages in Corrections are not contributing to human rights offences in prisons such as extended solitary confinement and refusing whānau visitation or does he think staff shortages are an acceptable excuse to breach basic human rights?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No but I will say that in terms of visitation the visitation rates are similar to when the Māori Party was in Government and they had an Associate Minister of Corrections but also in terms of visitation there have been over 3000 audiovisual link visits which in many cases prisoners and their whānau prefer.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Point of order. Sorry I don't think that the question has been answered. It was quite specific and asked when. We did get a good spiel about what the Minister has attempted to do but we didn't get an answer to the when".SPEAKER: I ask the member to go back to Hansard and I think the first word answered the question."