Undeported inmates cost NZ millions

A justice advocate says Corrections and the Parole Board cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions by not deporting foreign prisoners when they are eligible for parole.

Figures released by Corrections under the Official Information Act show there are 193 long-term prisoners – jailed for two or more years – facing deportation.

But Parole Board manager Alistair Spierling said community safety was the paramount consideration in all decision-making by the board – regardless of which country a prisoner was released to.

Corrections estimates it costs

$100,000 to keep one inmate in prison for a year while justice advocate Roger Brooking puts the cost of keeping these long-term prisoners serving an average of nearly 10 years at $193 million.

Another 33 foreign prisoners are serving indeterminate periods on a life or preventive detention sentence – most of whom would likely eventually die in jail because Corrections won’t put them in rehab programmes, he said.

Lifers spending an average 20 years in jail would cost $66m – putting the total taxpayer bill of all prisoners facing deportation at

$259m.

‘‘What a bloody waste of money,’’ Brooking said.

Depending on the severity of the crime Brooking said prisoners should generally be released and deported at the minimum of having served one third of their sentence.