Media Statement
For immediate release
Saturday, 29 January, 2004

Alexander: 'Corrections'should be renamed 'in-corrections'

''The latest botch-up in allowing a convicted drug dealer to fly unsupervised while supposedly under home detention proves that the monopoly powers of the state to provide Corrections services need to be re-assessed'', said United Future Law & Order spokesman Marc Alexander.

"We've just had kidnapper and serial escaper Sean Patrik Broderick simply stroll away from home detention and still unaccounted for; murderer James Stanley McCulloch slipping away from an appropriately named 'low- security work party' from Wanganui prison yesterday morning; and now drug dealer Tania Breitmeyer taking an unsupervised Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to Christchurch where neither the airline nor the passengers were the wiser."

"I'd love to hear the answer to one obvious question: what exactly is the point of supervision orders such as home detention with ankle bracelets when offenders are let loose with no monitoring at all? Just how stupid do the Corrections department think the public is in regard to their concerns for safety?"

"But what can we truly expect? The problem is that the only supplier for Corrections Department services remains the Department itself? Let's tender all the services out! Instead of shutting out private providers for ideological reasons such as the Auckland Remand Prison management team which not only delivers a higher quality service but also saves the taxpayer $27.000 per inmate per year, we should open up the possibility of real accountability."

"The recent spate of cockups in supervising back end home detentions show exactly why prison services should be tendered out. In the end no one will care who provides Corrections services as long as the public remains safe, the inmates are supervised properly and it's all done as cheaply and efficiently as possible"

"Both the inmates and the public will be better served- it's a win win!"

Ends

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