Introduction
By the standards present at this conference, and certainly on the podium, New Zealand is a small system. 18 prisons range in size from 50 to 900 inmates and our current prison population is just short of 7000. This produces an incarceration rate of 175 per 100,000 population high by most western standards, the United States excepted.
A few disclaimers at the beginning of this presentation are therefore appropriate:
- The New Zealand perspective is that of a western, relatively wealthy jurisdiction.
- We have closely monitored, and have sought to emulate, what we understand to be world best practice but we do not claim to have reached a state of perfection and we continue to face many challenges in implementing the culture and achieving the result we want to see.
- In terms of the often-claimed purposes for prison systems the strategic direction of the New Zealand Public Prisons Service (PPS) is based on the following:
- That many research studies indicate that prison sentences are unlikely of themselves to act as a deterrent to criminal offending.
- That punishment, the legitimate desire of a society to denounce and repudiate criminal offending, is a valid prison service function and requires us to deliver services in ways that are safe, secure and humane.
- The incapacitation role, protection of the community from offenders wishing to prey on it, is also a core function assisted by the development and delivery of accurate assessments of the future risk of criminal and violent offending.
- Rehabilitation can be effective in a prison setting if regard is paid to the “what works” literature and if interventions are therefore focused according to risk, needs and responsivity principles and delivered with regard to the Psychology of Criminal Conduct.
In the time available it will be possible for me to only briefly summarise what I see as the key features of the New Zealand Prison System. This summary document will provide more detail than I will be able to from the podium.
It also provides references to a number of publications and articles I will refer to and which are available on “ ICPA Conference” section of the New Zealand corrections website www.corrections.govt.nz/corrections/news-and-publications/a-well-functioning-prison-system-new-zealand-example.html
I have focused my presentation on:
- The Strategies
- The People, and
- The Platform
that have created, or perhaps more honestly are creating, a well functioning prison system in New Zealand.
