Men's prison at Wiri

News Flash:

1. In order to capture the lessons from the Project the Department has published a Lessons Learned Report (PDF 3.7 MB).
2. The contract between the Department of Corrections and SecureFuture for the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) men's prison at Wiri, was presented to parliament on 18 October 2012. View the Contract page.
3. Construction started with Ground Turning event – 20 September 2012. See the Beehive website.
4. Final Contract signed with SecureFuture - 11 September 2012. See the Beehive website.
5. Initial Social Monitoring Impact Plan (SIMP) developed - 6 September 2012. View the SIMP here.
6. Chairperson of Community Impact Forum and Social Impact Fund Allocation Committee appointed – 8 May 2012. View the media release.
7. First Tangata Whenua Committee (TWC) meeting – 26 March 2012.  See the Consultation page for more information.
8. Preferred Bidder, SecureFuture, confirmed – 8 March 2012. See the Beehive website.
9. First Community Impact Forum meeting – 28 February 2012. See the Consultation page for more information.
10. Community Liaison Manager appointed – 1 December 2011
11. NZCS Consortia excluded from the remainder of the procurement process – 10 November 2011
12. Final Board of Inquiry decision received and approval received – Full report can be found on the EPA Website – 26 September 2011
13. Proposals received from the three short-listed Respondents – 1 August 2011. Evaluation is now underway.
14. Draft Board of Inquiry decision issued on 29 July 2011 – the draft decision is a favourable one.
15. Interactive tendering sessions with Respondents completed – 15 July 2011.  Proposals due 1 August 2011.
16. BOI closed 22 June 2011, draft decision expected end of July 2011.
17. BOI adjourned 26 May 2011, reconvening on 22 June 2011.
18. BOI hearing commenced 2 May 2011.
19. Rebuttal evidence finalised for the BOI hearing.
20. The Request For Proposal was released on 8 March 2011. For more information view the media release. 
21. Three consortiums shortlisted on 7 February 2011.

Overview

In April 2010 the then Minister of Corrections Judith Collins and the Minister for Infrastructure Bill English announced that the Department of Corrections proposed to establish a men’s prison on land adjacent to the Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility at 20 Hautu Drive, Wiri, Manukau City.

The Department of Corrections was required to apply to change the existing Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility designation in the Manukau City District Plan in order to provide for the establishment of the men’s prison.

The prison’s location will help achieve the Department’s objective of improving rehabilitation and better reintegrating prisoners into the community. The new prison is located in New Zealand’s largest city with access to a wide range of rehabilitation services. We also expect the location will provide prisoners access to good work experience opportunities which will improve their chance of finding employment following release. This will help them to live more constructive lives on release, to turn their lives around and make a positive contribution to society.

Building a new prison will provide more prison capacity in Auckland, in line with forecast population growth, and will provide new facilities, which are better equipped to rehabilitate prisoners compared with older prisons. The new prison is part of ongoing work to create a network of prisons that give the modern, fit for purpose facilities we need to hold prisoners securely and work with them to reduce re-offending.

About 1,000 male prisoners from Auckland are currently held elsewhere in the country away from their families and whanau. The prison’s location means that prisoners will be held close to their home area where they have access to their family and whanau. This will help prisoners maintain important links with key support people and help reintegrate them back into their community upon release.  This is shown to reduce their likelihood of re-offending.

The Department owns land at Wiri adjacent to the existing Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility. The use of the vacant land at the Wiri site for additional Corrections facilities makes best use of the site, with no need to purchase additional land.