Spring Hill Corrections Facility (SHCF) opened in 2007 and was the final and largest of the four new facilities built as part of the Regional Prisons Development Project. SHCF is a 650-bed male prison set on a 215 hectare site and has been purpose built to meet the rehabilitative needs of prisoners. It accommodates prisoners with low to high-medium security classifications and employs 266 staff.
A phased build up of prisoners is underway at SHCF in order to fully test it and ensure it is fit-for-purpose prior to receipt of a large number of prisoners. The build-up began in November 2007 and is expected to be complete by January 2009.
SHCF is situated near Meremere and is part of Prison Services' Northern Region.
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Further information
Design
Security
Reducing re-offending
Motivational programmes
Cognitive-behavioural programmes
Specialist units
Prisoner employment
Education
Reintegration
Working with the community
Design
SHCF incorporates design and features that are intended to be most effective in terms of safety, security and rehabilitation.
The design is consistent with modern prison design internationally and the Department's experience operating New Zealand prisons.
SHCF is deliberately designed quite differently from traditional prisons. It is basically a big, secure enclosure with a range of separate units set in a large open space within a perimeter wall.
Accommodation units are clustered around centrally located services such as kitchens, industry areas and programme rooms.
The entire facility is enclosed by a highly secure perimeter fence with a single controlled point of entry.
This secure perimeter allows a more open internal prison environment, where prisoners can move through a planned day.
This protects the public and staff, reduces stress and prisoner management issues and provides a more effective environment for treatment, training and work programmes.
Security
Protecting the public is the Department's highest priority and this is accomplished through the secure incarceration of prisoners.
The level of physical security at each prison varies and is dependant on the type of prisoner accommodated. Because SHCF is a high security prison and accommodates prisoners assessed as a potential risk to the public, the level of physical security is higher than would be found at some other prisons.
SHCF is enclosed by a highly secure 6-metre high concrete perimeter fence topped with electrical wire. The area immediately surrounding the fence is equipped with lighting, surveillance and detection equipment.
The facility has a single point of entry. Everyone entering the prison, including staff, must pass through the gatehouse, where their belongings will be x-rayed and they will pass through a metal detector.
This helps to prevent contraband being smuggled into the prison.
In addition, electronic security devices and cameras, closed circuit TV, video motion detectors and microwave sensors are used throughout the facility.
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Reducing re-offending
Reducing re-offending is critical if the Department is to meet its overriding objective of improving public safety.
Reducing re-offending means fewer offenders commit crime after completing their sentences – resulting in fewer victims, a reduction in the cost of crime and safer communities.
SHCF provides prisoners with a range of rehabilitation programmes and interventions that are designed to address the primary causes of their offending and prepare them for release.
The most intensive interventions are targeted at prisoners who are assessed as being a high risk of re-offending, that have severe needs that caused their offending and are motivated to make constructive changes in their lives.
Every prisoner entering SHCF receives a sentence plan which they are required to comply with.
The focus of the sentence plan is on reducing re-offending on release and is developed following an assessment of a prisoner's risk, needs and motivation.
This ensures they are placed on the most appropriate and timely programmes and interventions to address the underlying causes of their offending.
Rehabilitation programmes and interventions provided at SCHF fall into four main categories: motivational, cognitive-behavioural, employment and education, and reintegrative.
Motivational programmes
Motivational programmes are designed to increase motivation and to encourage and prepare prisoners to confront the causes of their offending.
There are two primary motivational programmes used at Spring Hill: the Tikanga Maori Programme and the Short Motivational Programme.
Tikanga Maori programmes use Maori philosophy, values, knowledge and practice to help prisoners increase their understanding of their Maori identity and values, and improve their self-esteem to help them become motivated to address the causes of their offending.
The Short Motivational Programme aims to increase motivation by increasing a prisoner's problem awareness and recognition, reducing ambivalence, addressing cognitive distortions, and helping them consider options and formulate goals.
Cognitive-behavioural programmes
Cognitive-behavioural programmes aim to reduce re-offending by helping prisoners address the causes of their offending and teaching them to identify, analyse and solve problems and make decisions to better their lives.
Prisoners also learn how to understand the consequences of their actions and gain control over their own behaviour.
Spring Hill provides two general cognitive-behavioural programmes for prisoners: the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme and the Short Rehabilitation Programme.
The Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme is designed for prisoners in the middle risk range – those not high risk but still enough of a risk to warrant rehabilitation.
The programme increases problem awareness and recognition, reduces ambivalence, addresses cognitive distortions, and teaches prisoners to consider options and formulate goals.
The Short Rehabilitation Programme is a brief rehabilitation programme aimed at a smaller number of prisoners who require rehabilitation but do not have enough time in their sentence to complete a longer programme.
The programme is similar to the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme, but is shorter and more intense.
Both the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme and Short Rehabilitation Programme target a range of prisoners and are designed to cover the common elements of all offending.
Specialist units
SHCF also has a number of specialist units which provide long and intensive rehabilitation programmes aimed at specific causes of offending.
Spring Hill has New Zealand's only Pacific Focus Unit, which provides an environment where Pacific prisoners with a high risk of re-offending are encouraged to address their offending behaviours.
The unit has a multi-purpose fale where rehabilitation programmes will be held.
The Saili Matagi programme is provided in the unit.
Saili Matagi is provided to Pacific prisoners convicted for violent offences and helps them to identify and change their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
Spring Hill also has a combined drug treatment and special treatment unit called Puna Tatari.
The unit provides a specialist 24-week residential drug and alcohol programme including one-to-one and group cognitive-behavioural therapy, education on addiction and change, along with education about building new skills – especially social skills.
The special treatment unit provides treatment for serious offenders with a high risk of re-offending. While the unit caters for a range of prisoners, all prisoners have been convicted of at least one violent offence.
The programme provided in the unit is the same as the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme, but more time is taken to explain concepts, and allow group members to participate and practice new skills.
Prisoner employment
Prisoner employment, managed by Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE), plays an integral part in the rehabilitation of prisoners as it provides prisoners with essential work skills and habits.
The last prison census in 2003 found more than half of prisoners were not in paid employment prior to sentencing.
Prisoner employment increases the chance a prisoner will find sustainable work on release and research shows this will result in a decreased number of prisoners being reconvicted.
Spring Hill offers three main types of employment:
• internal self-sufficiency activities such as food preparation and laundry
• business-like industries including engineering workshops and construction
• Commercial work parties.
Prisoners are able to earn credits under the National Qualification Framework, allowing them to work towards qualifications whilst they are engaged in employment and training.
Minimum security prisoners who are nearing release may also be eligible to participate in Release to Work.
Release to Work is a form of temporary release that allows prisoners to be in paid work in the community.
It provides prisoners with a stable work record and the job is often carried on after a prisoner's release from prison.
Education
There is a strong relationship between a lack of education and criminal behaviour.
At the time of the last prison census in 2003, 51.7 per cent of all prisoners had no formal qualifications.
Educational achievement and participation can equip prisoners for self-sufficiency and reduce the barriers to living an offence-free life.
A prisoner can enrol in any subject or education programme they consider themselves capable of achieving.
There are five main types of education offered to prisoners at Spring Hill:
• Foundation Skills allows prisoners to develop their reading, writing, speaking, listening, critical thinking, numeracy and problem solving skills
• National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) run in conjunction with the Correspondence School
• Trade and Technical National Certificates offered by Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics and delivered in prisons
• Industry Training Qualifications earned on-the-job with Corrections Inmate Employment
• Self-Directed Tertiary Study distance learning initiated by prisoners and supported by the Department.
In addition, computer and hobby classes are also available.
Reintegration
Reintegration programmes aim to reduce re-offending by addressing problems likely to increase a prisoners' risk of re-offending on release.
Being imprisoned can have significant social consequences for a prisoner.
They are likely to have lost their job and accommodation, they are unlikely to be able to support their families and their relationships can be adversely affected in other ways.
Combined, this can lead offenders into a cycle of institutionalisation.
Spring Hill provides two reintegrative programmes:
• Living Skills, which is a broad-based programme to give prisoners skills and knowledge on how to function effectively in society on their release
• Parenting Skills, which is a group programme designed to teach parenting and relationship skills.
Reintegration case-workers also work with high-need prisoners at SHCF to address their specific reintegrative needs and help them prepare for release in the community.
Spring Hill also has Self-Care Units where longer-serving prisoners may be eligible to spend time as they near release.
These are residential style units inside the prison that let prisoners get used to living in a flatting type environment and give prisoners an opportunity to learn and practise the skills they will need to live independently after release.
The Living Skills Programme is also delivered in the Self-Care Units and many prisoners participate on the Release to Work programme.
The Ministry of Social Development have Work and Income work brokers and case managers permanently based at Spring Hill to help prisoners nearing release to find suitable work before they are released.
Prisoners who find sustainable employment on release are less likely to re-offend.
Working with the community
The community has an important role to play in the rehabilitation and transition of prisoners back into the community by supporting and encouraging prisoners to live an offence free life.
Many sectors of the community are involved in rehabilitating offenders and helping them move back into the community.
Corrections established a community liaison group during the construction of SHCF in conjunction with community members, local councils, and local police. This group has an ongoing point of community input and involvement with SHCF.
The local iwi Ngāti Naho also have an important relationship with Spring Hill. In their role as guardian or Kaitiaki, Ngāti Naho have been actively involved in the development and construction of SHCF and have an ongoing connection to it through the rehabilitation programmes that operate there.
Spring Hill has two cultural spaces, the fale that forms an integral part of the Pacific Focus Unit and a whare hui.
Fatua pasefika and kaitiaki are contracted by the Department to run educational and spiritual programmes for prisoners.
Spring Hill also works in with a number of support agencies, including New Zealand Prisoner's Aid and Rehabilitation Society (NZPARS), Prison Fellowship and the Salvation Army to support the successful reintegration of prisoners back into the community.
A large number of people also regularly donate their time, energy and expertise as volunteers with Spring Hill.
Volunteers provide invaluable support for prisoners and their families and give prisoners the opportunity to spend their free time constructively through music, art or sport.