About Corrections

We are a team of nearly 10,000 people working in communities and prisons to help people make positive changes in their lives and keep our communities safe. The majority of our people work on the frontline as corrections officers, probation officers, case managers, nurses, instructors, programme facilitators, psychologists, community work supervisors, and in many other roles.

Our strategic goals

Hōkai Rangi 2019-2024 is our organisational strategy, which helps us deliver on our three interconnected strategic goals:

• Improve public safety: We improve public safety through the management of safe and secure custodial facilities, liaison with Police, comprehensive risk assessment tools, electronic monitoring and, where necessary, civil detention.
• Reduce reoffending: We provide rehabilitation and reintegration services to help people address the causes of their offending and build positive relationships with their whānau. By helping people break the cycle of reoffending, we also improve the safety of our communities.
• Reduce overrepresentation of Māori: We, along with our partners, aim to reduce the overrepresentation of Māori in the corrections system. We cannot do this alone, and a joined-up approach across the justice sector and with the community is critical to addressing this disparity. Most importantly we must work closely alongside our Māori partners.

Our core responsibilities

The justice system starts with Police preventing and responding to crime, goes through to the courts where people are prosecuted and sentenced or acquitted, and then moves to Corrections where we manage people as directed by the courts. Day-to-day we are responsible for:

• Managing Aotearoa New Zealand’s prisons. We are responsible for 18 prisons across the country, including privately-operated Auckland South Corrections Facility. We are committed to operating safe, secure and humane prison environments and ensuring people in prison are managed in accordance with legislation and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
• Providing rehabilitation and reintegration support. We provide a range of services to assist with the rehabilitation and reintegration of people in prison, as well as support for people serving community-based sentences and orders.
• Monitoring community-based sentences and orders. When a person is subject to a sentence or order in the community, our staff assist them with their rehabilitation and reintegration needs, support them to comply with their sentence or conditions, and monitor them to hold them to account if they breach their conditions.
• Informing the courts, New Zealand Parole Board, and registered victims. We provide administrative and training support to the New Zealand Parole Board, which is an independent statutory body, separate from Corrections, as well as information and advice to both the courts and the Parole Board to help ensure well-informed decision-making prior to sentencing or the granting of parole. We also provide certain information to registered victims of offences, including notification of specific events relating to those who offended against them.

We have close relationships with Te Puni Kōkiri – Ministry of Māori Development, Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, the Ministry of Social Development – Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora, the Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora, Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, Te Aka Whai Ora – Māori Health Authority, and other social sector agencies.

We also work with Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children to protect the safety and welfare of children and young people serving sentences, as well as young people who are in the lives of the people we manage.

Our Values

Our values reflect what is important to us and underpin everything we do. They inform the changes we are making through Hōkai Rangi and guide how we make decisions, how we interact with people and our communities, and how we develop and deliver rehabilitation and reintegration interventions for people in our management and their whānau.

Our legislation

In undertaking our work, we are governed by the Corrections Act 2004 and the Corrections Regulations 2005, which provide the legal framework for how we manage and operate the corrections system. We are also governed by the Public Safety (Public Protection Orders) Act 2014, and jointly administer the Sentencing Act 2002 and the Parole Act 2002 with the Ministry of Justice.

We are also required to follow other pieces of non-Corrections specific legislation, including, but not limited to, the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act 2015, the Victims’ Rights Act 2002, the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 the Privacy Act 2020, and the Official Information Act 1982.