Ministry of Justice papers reveal path to $1b mega-prison
The path to a $1 billion megaprison was paved with “assumptions” and a “best guess” to predict the numbers of prisoners, new Ministry of Justice documents reveal.
But repeatedly inaccurate prison projections blew out estimates of how many prisoners could be expected and left politicians scrambling to find somewhere to put them.
Documents revealed through the Official Information Act show officials and politicians struggling to get to grips with a ballooning prison population. From 2014, the actual number of prisoners consistently defied carefully worked out prison population projections needed to plan for the size of prisons, staff and budgets.
It culminated in the development of the Waikeria mega-prison plans which were scaled up from a proposed 1000-bed increase to a 3000-bed, $1b facility.
The new Government, which has pledged to cut the prison population, has said the mega-prison will not go ahead but has yet to explain what it will do with the rising tally of inmates.
The change is illustrated by predictions in 2012 picking the prison population to be about 8000 in a decade. The current prison population is about 10,600 with predictions now that it will rise to 12,200 by 2026.
A December 2016 briefing to officials from police, Ministry of Justice and Corrections spelled out how frequent “tough on crime” law