Minister’s gaffe over NZ prison population

Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has tried to backtrack following comments he had not seen the latest prison population projections before making a decision about the Waikeria Prison.

Yesterday, Davis said he was unaware of the latest prison population projections when he announced the decision last week to build the 600-bed Waikato prison – significantly smaller than the prison planned by the former National government.

Davis said he had not seen the projections when he made the Waikeria announcement, but later said his comments only related to the public version of the report, which was released last week.

The Ministry of Justice projections were approved by justice sector agency chief executives last November, but Davis said he was not aware of them until Sunday.

The projections show the prison population was expected to increase by 4100 over a decade – from 10,300 in June 2017 to 14,400 in June 2027. That is an increase from the previous 10-year forecast, which had expected a population of 12,200 by 2026.

Opposition leader Simon Bridges said the Government had sat on the report, which was publicly released last week – for more than six months.

The claim Davis had not seen the latest population forecasts before making the decision about the new prison build ‘‘beggars belief’’, he said.

The projected increase made the Government’s decision to build a smaller prison at Waikeria ‘‘all the more egregious’’.

‘‘It’s no wonder that the Government chose to quietly dump the forecast report online without a word on Saturday,’’ Bridges said.

Davis told Radio New Zealand yesterday he had not seen the latest projections until he looked online on Sunday. He did not know how long the Government had those projections but he had known the forecasts were rising.

Nor did he know about the latest projections when he made the announcement about Waikeria Prison. ‘‘I hadn’t seen the forecast when we made the announcement.

‘‘We made a decision [about Waikeria] based on what’s best practice. We know that mega-prisons don’t work. We know that we have to get the prison population down. It’s an economic decision. We just can’t afford to keep building more and more prisons, and bigger and bigger prisons,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re not treating the forecasts as a target. We’re treating them as a warning, that’s why we’re doing things differently. Our goal is to reduce the prison population by 30 per cent over the next 15 years.’’

Davis refused an interview following the comments made on Radio NZ but in a statement he said the decision on the Waikeria rebuild was made by Cabinet, based on the latest projections.

‘‘Ministers have been working off the 2017 projections through all decisions made in relation to Waikeria Prison. These formed the basis of the paper I took to Cabinet in June,’’ Davis said.

‘‘My comments were intended to convey that I simply had not read the public version of the report on the projections, which was published last week. Of course, I’ve seen dozens of official reports based on the information in the projections.’’

Labour’s proposed reduction of inmates by 30 per cent in 15 years would make the prison population about 7000 – half the size being projected for 2027.

The country’s prison population had declined over recent months – from 10,800 in March to 10,500 now, Davis said. ‘‘We’re doing things differently. We’ve been in government for less than a year and already we’re tracking under the forecast. We’ve only just started.’’

My comments were intended to convey that I simply had not read the public version of the report on the projections, which was published last week.’’