Govt push to axe new $1b prison

Labour’s target is 30 per cent drop in prisoner numbers in 15 years.

The Labour-led Government wants to put the brakes on the burgeoning prison muster so it can axe plans for a new 1500-bed prison — expected to cost close to $1 billion.

The increase in remand prisoners has put pressure on the prison population and Corrections is now looming as a political battleground, with Opposition leader Bill English warning it will test the Government.

The number of prisoners has risen since new laws in 2013 made it tougher to grant bail, roughly doubling the number of remand prisoners to about 3000 today.

The prison muster is 10,457, well above justice sector forecasts and expected to keep rising.

Last year the previous government unveiled plans to add 1800 prison beds at a cost of $1b, with more double-bunking in Ngawha prison, a new 245-bed block in Mt Eden prison, and the new 1500-bed prison.

Justice Minister Andrew Little said it was his “strong preference” not to build a new prison, which he called a symbol of the “abject failure of our criminal justice system”.

Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis echoed this sentiment, adding that construction work had yet to begin on the prison.

“I’m looking at all options to reduce the prison muster, so that it doesn’t end up being built.

“We’ll rule out the stuff that won’t make New Zealand safer.”

Labour wants to lower the prison population by 30 per cent in 15 years, a target Little described as “ambitious”.

Little said he had no plans to revisit the bail laws, switching the focus to crime prevention, prisoner rehabilitation, and rolling out more therapeutic courts, which can divert offenders into treatment if they plead guilty.

English warned that the mushrooming prison muster could become a critical issue.

“I think where you’re going to find a lack of stability is the Government not knowing what it’s going to do about the big pressure coming on the Corrections portfolio.”

Corrections national commissioner Rachel Leota said the department currently could hold an extra 400 prisoners, which should rise to 600 by the end of the year.

Davis said innovative thinking could be used to rehabilitate women prisoners, whose needs and motives were different to men.

“Men normally do things because we’re a bit stupid. Women normally commit crime to protect others, their families, their children.”

He added that he would put an end to privately run prisons.

“With the situation with Auckland South [run by Serco], we’re locked in a long-term contract, and it will be costly to break that.”

The Serco contract ends in 2040.