Ensuring sentence compliance

Ensuring sentence and order compliance is the Department’s core business – it is critical to the integrity of sentences and orders and is as important for Māori offenders as for any other offenders.

When we ensure the sentence and order compliance of Māori offenders, we are then more likely to reduce re-offending by Māori.

Effective sentence compliance means Māori offenders:

• complete their sentences and orders
• comply with the restrictions of their sentences and orders
• are positively motivated to comply with their sentences and conditions
• experience appropriate consequences when they do not comply
• are treated fairly
• in the case of prisons, are incarcerated in a safe, secure and humane environment.

Ensuring sentence compliance contributes directly to improving public safety, and maintains public trust and confidence in the justice system.

We will need Māori offenders to complete all the requirements of their sentences, whether custodial or community based, and apply appropriate sanctions if they do not.

We will motivate Māori offenders and encourage whānau and communities to work with us to ensure sentence compliance.

A safe, secure and humane environment supports a positive atmosphere that motivates Māori offenders to comply with their sentence.

Progress to date
Significant development of systems and processes has been undertaken for community-based sentences to meet the demands of the new sentences, to better manage high-risk Māori offenders, and to provide a solid foundation for enforcing sentence compliance by community-based Māori offenders.

The Department has faced a number of years of change in the way it is required to manage community-based offenders. Many of the issues faced now are about consolidating systems, new procedures, and training new staff to ensure consistency when managing community-based offenders.

The recent strengthening of community-based sentences reduces otherwise likely imprisonment rates for all offenders.

The effective use of community-based sentencing options will have a particular impact on reducing short term imprisonment where a large number of Māori offenders are represented.

Currently, Māori offenders are more likely to breach the conditions of their sentence and as a result are more likely to be imprisoned.

In prisons there have been ongoing improvements in the physical security, increased detection of contraband (including drugs and cellphones), and improved methods of collecting information to prevent crimes being committed or coordinated from prison.

However, Māori prisoners are also more likely to be involved in prison incidents such as assaults, illicit drug use, self harm and attempted escapes. This issue will continue to be investigated as part of the Department’s research programme.

It is important to recognise that sentence compliance will always be a challenging area with both community-based Māori offenders and Māori prisoners.

Looking forward
Sentence compliance will be a key focus looking forward, and we will emphasise getting the basics of compliance right. We will:

• do the basics right, and retain high levels of professional standards
• review core systems and processes to ensure consistency, coherency and, where possible, simplicity
• improve the understanding of the core systems and processes through focused training and induction processes
• monitor levels of Māori offender compliance and provide feedback to staff
• improve the timeliness and appropriateness of response to Māori offender non-compliance
• strengthen communication between staff managing different sentences, especially in light of the increase in multiple sentences for individual Māori offenders
• strengthen the focus on quality and business improvements.
  Motivating Māori offenders to comply with sentences is an important aspect of compliance.

We will:

• provide the services Māori offenders require for rehabilitation
• treat Māori offenders fairly and humanely
• enable Māori offenders to have contact with whānau and other visitors when in prison
• involve whānau whenever possible in sentence management
• ensure Māori offenders’ legitimate needs are met.

Ensuring sentence compliance requires strong collaboration through our partnerships with agencies, hapū, iwi and Māori community groups who work with sentenced offenders. Through our partnerships we will strengthen our work with these key agencies and groups.

What progress will look like
We will know we are successful when we see:

• improvements in the sentence compliance and completion rates of Māori offenders and prisoners
• fewer escapes by Māori prisoners from custody
• appropriate and timely responses to non-compliance of community-based sentences
• decreasing drug use amongst Māori prisoners
• reduced seriousness of re-offending by Māori offenders while on sentence or order
• reduced re-offending by Māori offenders while on a sentence or order