Heather Roy's Diary

The Exorbitant Cost Of Juggling Prisoners

Barely a day has gone by in recent weeks where the Department of Corrections has not been featured in the media having to explain its shortcomings over the transport of prisoners or a prison bed shortage so severe that inmates are having to be held in police cells.

Despite the in-depth media coverage, however, the full extent of the problem had not come to light. In an attempt to get to the bottom of the issue, I lodged written Parliamentary Questions to Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor and Police Minister Annette King.

The answers I received were very revealing. They showed that New Zealand taxpayers fork out $17,300 every night to house criminals - who should be in prison - in police cells. In just three months - from March 1-May 31 2007 - Corrections spent almost $1.6 million to house its inmates in police cells because there wasn't enough room in the nation's prisons.

With Corrections paying Police $190 per night to house a prisoner in their cells, this works out to be an average of 91 offenders in a police cell on any given night during those three months.

This means that during that short period 8,421 offenders, the equivalent of the country's entire prison muster - the total number of inmates in New Zealand prisons at any given time - was kept in Police cells - again, when they should have been be in prison.

To say these figures are alarming is an understatement given a number of factors: sentencing and parole laws introduced under Labour see many criminals released, or granted Home Detention, after serving just one third of their sentence.

Further, a total of 971 new prison beds have become available since March 2005: Northland Region Corrections Facility opened in March 2005 (350 beds), Auckland Region Women's Correction Facility opened in June 2006 (286 beds) and the Otago Region Corrections Facility opened in May 2007 (335 beds).

These factors should have reduced prison overcrowding - but they have not. Instead, we have a constant flow of prisoners held in police cells at great cost to the taxpayer.

That $1.6 million over three months could have paid for 56 coronary bypasses, or 105 hip replacements. Spent more effectively - rather than on keeping prisoners in police cells - that money could have paid for five cataract operations, or provided grommet procedures for 15 children, every night for three months.

Inmates are supposed to be in prison - not in police cells because of a lack of room. While Police are reimbursed by Corrections, the fact is that front-line police have more important things to do than guard prisoners in cells that weren't designed for long-term habitation.

But it's not just police officers who are guarding these prisoners: questions asked of Police Minister Annette King reveal that security firms Triton Security, ADT and Chubb (NZ) have been contracted to guard many of these prisoners while they are held in police cells. What training these guards receive is not clear.

Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay exorbitant amounts to house the country's entire prison muster in Police cells - but they are. This is because Corrections is a department in crisis constrained by Government policies.

An example of this was what happened to the Auckland Remand Prison. This private facility was contracted to house criminals and did so successfully - but, due to its ideology Labour changed the law to have this effective prison handed back to State control in 2005.

Now - despite a crash programme of prison building and a large, but mis-guided, home detention programme - Corrections is failing to house our rising numbers of convicted felons.

If this Government were serious about tackling prison over-crowding it would be looking again at independent private prisons - then, with the introduction of competition, we might see prisons run efficiently and effectively.

Not only that, but we might even see improved rates of rehabilitation - of which there is little hope when current Government policy places the daily emphasis on where almost 100 prisoners are going to spend the night at any given time.

Lest We Forget At the time of writing, Governor-General Anand Satyanand and Vice Chief of the Defence Force Air Vice Marshal David Bamfield will join Commonwealth and European representatives at a ceremony at Belgium's Tyne Cot Cemetery.

They are participating in a remembrance service marking the 90th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele - a piece of land that had been fought over many times.

The battle is sometimes called the Third Battle of Ypres. Assault troops included the II ANZAC Corps under General Alexander Godley. The area in Flanders was reclaimed marsh and when artillery disrupted drainage canals the land turned to mud. The soldiers fought in appalling conditions and casualties were horrific. While New Zealand soldiers distinguished themselves by capturing the strategic Messines Ridge, when reading the history of the campaign the main lesson is the horror of war.

Over 800 New Zealanders died and more than 2,000 were wounded in one morning alone. At a time when the New Zealand population was one million 1,000,000, the war left a large proportion of our young men dead. When I was young my mother had many 'Maiden Aunts' - only later did I realise their potential husbands lay buried at places like Tyne Cot.

July 10 1967: Decimal currency was introduced to New Zealand. Having been well-informed for months of the finer details and consequences, the pubic was ready for the change. Many readers will recall the school-based programme in which, upon completing a conversion course, participants were made 'Dollar Scholars'. Much of the credit for the smooth transition went to the new Finance Minister who - despite being the lowest-ranked Cabinet Minister - had recently been propelled into the Government's second most important job. That Minister's name dominated New Zealand politics for the next 25 years: Robert Muldoon.

ENDS

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