Proposed men's prison at Wiri

News Flash:

1. Preferred Bidder, SecureFuture, confirmed – 8 March 2012. See the Beehive website.
2. First Community Impact Forum meeting – 28 February 2012
3. Community Liaison Manager appointed – 1 December 2011
4. NZCS Consortia excluded from the remainder of the procurement process – 10 November 2011
5. Final Board of Inquiry decision received and approval received – Full report can be found on the EPA Website – 26 September 2011
6. Proposals received from the three short-listed Respondents – 1 August 2011. Evaluation is now underway.
7. Draft Board of Inquiry decision issued on 29 July 2011 – the draft decision is a favourable one.
8. Interactive tendering sessions with Respondents completed – 15 July 2011.  Proposals due 1 August 2011.
9. BOI closed 22 June 2011, draft decision expected end of July 2011.
10. BOI adjourned 26 May 2011, reconvening on 22 June 2011.
11. BOI hearing commenced 2 May 2011.
12. Rebuttal evidence finalised for the BOI hearing.
13. The Request For Proposal was released on 8 March 2011. For more information view the media release. 
14. Three consortiums short-listed 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.

Proceeding with the prison provides resilience and flexibility within the prison network to mitigate longer-term capacity pressures.  In addition, the Department will receive a new fit-for-purpose asset to the prison network that has been specifically designed to aid the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners.

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.