Simon Power MP
National Party Justice & Corrections Spokesman

26 March 2007

Contractor paid to watch inmates and staff talk

Corrections is to spend up to $180,000 for a contractor to watch staff at Auckland Women’s Prison chatting with prisoners, and prisoners moving around the grounds, says National’s Justice & Corrections spokesman, Simon Power.

He is releasing the department’s request for proposal for the evaluation of the prison’s new operating philosophy which aims to achieve a ‘safe, secure and humane containment of inmates, as well as encourage and empower inmates to address their criminogenic and reintegrative needs’.

Among the behaviours the contractor is required to observe are:

* ‘Staff interact/engage in active management/conversations with prisoners as they move around the facility.’
* ‘Staff are mobile around the prison site; staff visually monitor paths of travel between, and within the various zones.’

“I’m afraid I have to question Corrections’ spending of this much taxpayers’ money to see if these sorts of things are happening in the prison and whether or not that philosophy is being achieved.

“Surely the sort of information they are seeking could be gathered by existing staff. They have 100 analysts in head office, so why do they need external consultants?

“It seems this is another example of Corrections’ cavalier use of taxpayers’ money.

“This prison is a monument to Labour’s bad planning resulting in massive budget blowouts.

“In 2003 they estimated it would cost $58.4 million to build, but it was finally opened last year for a final cost of $158 million – including a $2 million bill for landscaping.

“That means each of the 286 beds cost taxpayers $552,450.

“You would have thought Corrections had spent enough on this prison without spending even more money on more consultants.

“At last count Corrections were expected to spend $1 million a month on consultants this year, even though they continue to hire more staff.”

ENDS

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