Expansion of Waikeria Prison under review
A 1500-bed increase at Waikeria Prison proposed by the National Government is in jeopardy.
Labour said on Sunday it prefers National’s $1 billion prison spend-up to go on prevention instead.
But the Otorohanga District Council had already planned a residential subdivision to accommodate the predicted 500 to 600 employees that would have come with the prison expansion.
An extension to Otorohanga’s Westridge subdivision is two months away from the start of road construction.
Last year, the National Government unveiled plans for a $1b spend on 1800 new prison beds.
Included was the 1500-bed expansion at Waikeria, extra beds at Northland’s Ngawha Prison, and a new 245-bed block at Mt Eden Corrections Facility.
The Labour Party was vocal in its opposition.
And now Labour is in government Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has wasted no time, saying on Sunday ’’our least-preferred option is to build more prisons’’.
‘‘The reality is, if you put someone in prison, especially a young person, you can guarantee that they’ll return to prison, which means they’ll get out and commit more crimes and create more victims.
‘‘So we’d rather look at other options.’’
Otorohanga District Mayor Max Baxter called that a knee-jerk reaction.
‘‘If that was to happen, and the plug was pulled, that would be disappointing,’’ Baxter said
Baxter said the prospect of bringing hundreds of permanent fulltime staff to the area was huge.
The proposed prison facility would create substantial economic benefits, including an increase in house values.
He had expected the district’s population to grow by 1000 to 2000, as every employee usually had a partner or a family.
Baxter said he would expect, at the least, to have a conversation with Government ministers before the prison expansion was formally axed.
But Davis said the Government wanted to reduce the prison muster and that building new prisons is a ‘‘sure sign that things aren’t working’’.
He said preliminary discussions had already taken place and Corrections officials were looking at options to reduce the muster by
30 per cent over the next 15 years. ‘‘It is ambitious but we’ve got to stop throwing people in prison.
‘‘We’re not going to jeopardise the safety of New Zealanders to do it, so we’ve got to be convinced of our goal before anything is done.’’
Construction of the new facility at Waikeria Prison was to start in
2018 and be completed by the end of 2021.