The Department’s core responsibility is to administer the sentences and orders of the Courts and Parole Board. Ensuring compliance is crucial to maintaining the integrity of sentences and orders. Holding offenders to account in this manner preserves public trust and confidence in the justice system, and contributes to improved public safety through both incapacitation and deterrence of future offending.
Sentence compliance is achieved when offenders:
Interest in sentence compliance is strong amongst the public generally, and our performance on relevant indicators influences public trust and confidence in the justice system.
Growth in community sentence volumes and complexity
The critical focus in relation to compliance currently is the community-based offender population. Pressures have risen substantially because of sustained growth in volumes over the last 18 months, which are now well above funded levels.
Community sentence completion rates of 70 - 90 percent (which are comparable with similar overseas jurisdictions) are being maintained, but with increasing difficulty.
Following introduction of the new community sentencing regime in October 2007, there has been steady and continuous growth from zero to a total of over 4000 offenders on the three new sentences (see Figure 2 below). These sentences are more complex to administer due to the distinct requirements of each sentence, and because judges can impose varying sentence combinations.
The use of these sentences by the judiciary was more rapid and greater than expected. While the new sentences have alleviated pressure on prison capacity, they have also meant that a growing number of more challenging offenders are serving community sentences, requiring more careful management than previously was the case with most offenders on community sentences previously.
Figure 2: Numbers on the new community sentences Nov 2007 – Oct 2008: Home Detention, Intensive Supervision, Community Detention
Somewhat unexpectedly however, numbers on the two existing community sentences - Community Work and Supervision - also increased significantly. From late 2007, the numbers on these sentences grew by around 5,000, to reach the current total of around 30,000 (see Figure 3 below; note that the scale of the two graphs presented here differ; about 30,000 offenders are serving Community Work and Supervision, compared to about 4,000 on the new sentences).
Figure 3: Numbers on existing community sentences Nov 2007 – Oct 2008: Community Work and Supervision
The combined effect of these pressures – unexpectedly high volumes, greater administrative complexity, and more challenging offenders together with more inexperienced staff - has affected the ability of staff to follow key procedures in a timely manner. It has the potential to seriously impair achievement of service delivery standards. Community Probation and Psychological Services received a further increase in resources in Budget 2008. However volumes of offenders and the volume of requests for pre-sentence reports have continued to increase above these levels.
Community Probation and Psychological Services have reviewed their procedures and are making changes to relieve the pressure on key staff. These efforts seek to ensure that service delivery is improved to a satisfactory standard especially for high risk offenders. It is reviewing its performance in this area every few months and ensuring that remedial action is taken when problems are identified.
Recruitment is continuing, and there remains a strong focus on staff training. However, the pressures in this area are increasing the risk of compromises to public safety, and potential for “knock-on” impacts on the prison population if judges were to lose confidence in community sentences.
Maintaining prisoner sentence compliance
Comparison with similar countries such as Australia, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada, shows that New Zealand’s prison-based compliance rates also compare well internationally. Escapes and incidents of serious disorder, including assaults, are lower than in most comparable jurisdictions.
Escapes from custody have declined significantly in the last five years as physical security has been improved. Only the category of “walk-aways” has increased slightly, in part a consequence of increasing numbers of prisoners employed in prison work parties, and on release-to-work arrangements.
Drug use, as measured by random testing of prisoners, is high by international standards, but has fallen steadily following major initiatives designed to stop the flow of contraband into prisons. Over the last decade, positive random drug tests around the country have fallen from approximately 34 percent to 13 percent during 2007/08. Increased prison-based alcohol and drug treatment programmes are expected to further reduce demand for drugs by prisoners.
Crime prevention in prisons
The smuggling of cell phones into prison is of concern, as these can be used to organise criminal activity, or to harass and threaten victims, witnesses or other members of the public. The capacity to “jam” cell-phone signals is well advanced in New Zealand prisons, placing us significantly ahead of comparable jurisdictions such as Australia. Progressive roll-out on a site-by-site basis has been necessary, as varying geographical and spatial features of individual prisons require different technological solutions.
Monitoring of prisoners’ telephone calls has also been increased, which also reduces illegal activities and harassment of members of the public by prisoners. A specialist team (the Department of Corrections Intelligence Team) focuses on crime prevention, and the Department frequently involves other law enforcement agencies in crime prevention and intelligence sharing.
Maintaining control over organised crime and gang influence and activity in prisons requires constant vigilance and initiative. Confirmed gang members currently account for 27 percent of the total prison population, and it is estimated that a further 10 percent of prisoners are gang affiliates. The Department has a Gang Management Strategy to curb the activities and influence of gangs within the prison environment. This strategy is currently being updated in light of international and local experience, and in collaboration with Police and local communities. The approach is intended to be more comprehensive, addressing recruitment into gangs, as well as targeting criminal behaviour in prison such as violence, “taxing” and drug use.
Disruptive and violent prisoners
Corrections Officers deal with aggressive and challenging prisoners on a daily basis. The role is a demanding one, and assaults on staff do occur from time to time. Although total assaults on Corrections staff, and work-related injuries, are down compared to past years, the severity of some recent assaults is of considerable concern to managers, staff and unions.
The Department has several initiatives underway to improve staff safety and support when dealing with aggressive and uncooperative prisoners. A Prison Staff Safety project is exploring options for personal protective equipment that could be used within prisons by staff, such as stab-proof vests and pepper spray, and enhanced training courses in prisoner management.
A current challenge for the Department is presented by a number of severely violent and disruptive prisoners. This description applies to relatively few prisoners nationally (15 – 30 at any given time), but their behaviour can significantly threaten the safety of staff and other prisoners, and undermine the maintenance of good order. An earlier response to the same issue - the Behaviour Management Regime - was discontinued in 2004 following successful legal action by a group of prisoners.
The Department is currently designing a more effective management approach for severely violent and disruptive prisoners. It is likely that this will be implemented in a specially designated maximum-security unit, and entail a system whereby prisoners move towards more normalised conditions as their behaviour improves.
High risk offenders
When offenders with a degree of notoriety are released from prison, it is not uncommon for there to be extensive media reporting of the release, with associated expressions of public concern and alarm. On the other hand, less well-known offenders who nevertheless pose high risks are also released from time to time.
The Department has protocols for planning the release of “high-risk/high-profile” prisoners, as well as their post-release management. Both stages involve a joint approach with representatives from other justice and social sector agencies (Police, Housing, Ministry of Social Development, and occasionally Ministry of Health).
Extended Supervision Orders for high risk child sex offenders may be imposed by the Courts with special conditions set by the Parole Board. These allow the Department to maintain a degree of monitoring and supervisory control over this very small group of ex-offenders (currently 130) for up to ten years after completion of their sentence and parole order.
In cases of prisoners who continue to pose very high risks of further serious offending, the Department is able to apply to the Parole Board (under Section 107 of the Parole Act 2002) to have the individual serve their entire sentence without being
considered for parole.