New Government initiatives to reduce re-offending progressing well
Our challenge is to continue the momentum we have built up in making sensible changes to the way with deal with offenders.
Kia Ora.
Thank you for inviting me to address your conference. I'm delighted to be here because Corrections and the Prison Fellowship share a similar vision - the rehabilitation of prisoners.
I would like to acknowledge Judge David Carruthers, and MPs Chester Borrows, Judy Turner and Nandor Tanczos.
The Prison Fellowship's ability to deliver sound, innovative programmes and services to prisoners is impressive. I particularly admire the strong focus on restorative justice.
This weekend's conference is themed on reintegrating offenders. Helping them adjust to life in the community is a huge challenge, as they can become institutionalised and lose links to the outside world.
The Government is working hard to improve the way it manages offenders' transition back into society. I will outline progress later.
I'm not going to mince my words. The past year has been extremely challenging for Corrections. Liam Ashley's death focused the public's attention on prisoner transport and Graeme Burton's rampage generated very real concerns for many New Zealanders.
In doing so, it also forced Corrections to do some serious soul searching. The department has had to show leadership and accept its responsibility just as it has to do everything in its power to ensure similar tragedies don't occur again.
It has looked closely at policies and procedures surrounding transportation of prisoners, Corrections' interaction with the Parole Board and the role of its Probation and Offender Services.
I can assure you that Probation and Offender Service processes for managing high-risk parolees have already been tightened and work in this area will be ongoing.
I will also receive a comprehensive report from Corrections on options for modifying prisoner transportation, and I will be considering this very carefully.
Liam Ashley's death and the murder of Karl Kuchenbecker have highlighted the extremely difficult and challenging environment that Corrections and Probation Officers work in.
They do an excellent job on the whole, and the public, politicians and media need to understand that.
The 2900 volunteers who work in our 20 prisons also do an exceptional job. They provide invaluable assistance in countless ways. Many of the organisations are present here today. I would like to acknowledge your tremendous efforts.
In total there are about 8500 Corrections staff and volunteers who make this very complex and volatile system work.
It's worth reminding people: Yes, mistakes, accidents, and failures do occur, which cause hurt, anguish and tragedy for families, and systems must be constantly improved as we move forward.
But, there is a story here that helps put this in perspective. New Zealand has more than 7900 offenders inside prison walls today and manages 64,000 sentences in the community - every year.
That is no mean feat. Dealing professionally with these kinds of numbers with relatively few incidents might not make the front page of a newspaper but it tells of a department that is far from the dysfunctional organisation that critics allege.
Unfortunately, the appetite for witch-hunts and scapegoats appears to know no bounds. Hit-and-run criticism, but nothing in the way of proposed solutions, barring desperate re-runs of the 1990s, when privatisation was hailed as a magic bullet.
I would like to re-state Labour's position. There will always be an integral need for NGOs to be involved in prisons and community sentences, and their input on policy will always be valued. They have great knowledge, experience, energy and dedication.
But the running of our prisons will remain a fundamental role of the state. Commercial organisations should not be allowed to view the incarceration of our citizens as an opportunity to make a profit.
And I don't accept private prison operators are necessarily more efficient or effective. Our public prisons are routinely criticised, but recent British media reports have exposed huge flaws in the private prison system.
Good undercover journalism last month unearthed a catalogue of failings at the privately-run Rye Hill jail in Britain's Midlands.
The jail has been strongly criticised over the murder of one inmate and the "avoidable" suicides of other vulnerable prisoners. Intimidation of staff is rife, as is the availability of contraband and prisoner threats on staff. Serious assaults and positive random drug tests among prisoners at the jail have also risen.
And still the attacks on our system continue unabated.
One can only imagine the impact it has on the personal lives of Corrections staff and volunteers. I do wonder at times what makes you - staff and volunteers - continue in your jobs in the face of such an onslaught.
All I can say is that I am truly thankful that you do - and so should all New Zealanders, if they thought about it for a moment.
However, I do not want to dwell too long on the negatives. There is a huge amount of encouraging initiatives progressing.
Of course, the Government and Corrections have to acknowledge certain realities and continue to make improvements where necessary.
But we will not allow ourselves to be deflected from the task at hand. Our challenge is to continue the momentum we have built up in making sensible changes to the way with deal with offenders.
The thinking around law and order has undergone significant change and I am confident that Corrections has a very clear vision of where our thinking is going and what needs to be done.
First, we must continue to protect society by locking up repeat serious and dangerous offenders.
This has been and always will be fundamental to what the department does. The Government has made very good progress in recent years, modernising our prisons so that escapes have dropped by 78 per cent since the late 1990s.
But our legal responsibility to reduce re-offending by rehabilitating prisoners is also important.
In doing so we will see fewer victims and help make our communities safer for all.
Already, there are about 1200 prisoners on or about to start programmes designed to address aspects of their offending.
These include:
· one-on-one psychological counselling,
· nine-month courses at Kia Marama and Te Piriti special treatment units for child sex offenders,
· the nine-month rehabilitative programme for violent offenders at the Violence Prevention Unit at Rimutaka Prison,
· the community-based Montgomery House violence prevention programme in Hamilton;
· FOCUS programme for young male prisoners,
· a new Short Motivational Programme for prisoners serving short sentences.
And there has been a great deal of recent extra funding. Last year the Government invested additional money to support several Corrections initiatives and the Effective Interventions programme.
In the four years from 2006 - 2010 Corrections is receiving: $112 million to implement Effective Interventions, $28.5 million for the prisoner employment strategy and rehabilitation programmes, $48 million for home detention and $36 million for community-based sentences.
The new initiatives supported by this funding include:
· Two more prison-based drug and alcohol units over the next 18 months - bringing the total number of such units to six.
· Two new high-intensity special treatment units to deliver a new 300-hour programme that targets high-risk offenders. I will talk about this shortly, but I want to say here that programmes running in these units have been shown to significantly reduce re-offending rates.
· Extending the prisoner employment strategy, improving both the volume and the quality of employment and education available to prisoners.
· This funding will also boost treatment programmes for offenders serving community-based sentences. We know that targeted interventions at this stage lower chances of offending escalating to a point where prison becomes the only option.
· It will also pay for more than 200 additional community probation service staff to manage the new sentence of home detention and the new community based sentences of intensive supervision and community detention.
I cannot cover these all in detail here, but I would like to spend a bit of time looking at some of the newer initiatives.
· The first is the 140-hour Rehabilitation Programme for offenders at medium risk of re-offending.
This is designed for offenders in prison and on community-based sentences, and has been up and running since September 2006.
We have high hopes that it will be available in all five prison regions, and main cities within a month or two and have trained up 80 staff to deliver this programme.
The programme will be almost twice the length of the Straight Thinking programme it replaces, giving it a much better chance of being effective.
· Another new programme, a 300-hour Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation programme, will soon be trialled in a purpose-built unit at Waikeria Prison in Waikato.
This programme will encourage higher risk offenders to take responsibility for themselves by critically examining their thinking and behaviour instead of being instructed on how to behave.
Again, it is part of the philosophy of incentivising prisoners to make necessary changes themselves. We can show them how to change, but they have to want to change.
I am confident that following the trial, we will open two additional units within the prison system next year.
As we continue to develop new programmes, and create more opportunities for offenders to gain new skills, we must constantly assess the effectiveness of current initiatives and be bold enough to make changes where necessary.
A key area of work for Corrections is addressing prisoners' abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Drugs have a devastating effect on the heath and well-being of our communities, and their impact on our prisons and prisoners is no different.
In 1999, 83 per cent of prisoners were assessed as having a problem with drugs and/or alcohol at some point in their lives.
Clearly we need to look at the effects on rehabilitation. Keeping drugs out of prisons is a great place to start.
It is a constant battle, but we are making progress. In the late 1990s, in some units 46 per cent of prisoners tested positive for drugs. Last year, this dropped to 15 per cent. More contraband is also being detected.
This has come about through building 17 kilometres of perimeter fencing, a doubling of the number of drug dogs, increased surveillance at gates and checkpoints, new scanning equipment and intelligence gathering capabilities.
However, we must keep improving.
It is vital that we stem the flow of drugs into prisons. Continued drug use in prisons leads to family and visitors being pressured to smuggle drugs and it sees our rehabilitation interventions undermined.
On the demand side, the department is also making progress. It is increasing the incentives for Identified Drug Using prisoners to become drug-free, improving access to rehabilitation activities, and providing more effective management of persistent drug offenders
Research has shown that reconviction rates for those who have completed courses in one of these drug treatment units are 13 per cent lower over a 24-month period than for those who go untreated.
These are not ad hoc interventions. Far from it. The process starts on arrival at the prison gates and continues throughout a prisoner's sentence.
When offenders arrive they receive a medical check, which along with periodic random drug tests give the department a clearer picture of the health needs of prisoners.
To be admitted to a rehabilitation programme or reintegrative activity, Identified Drug Using prisoners have to provide two negative drug tests.
If they pass the drug tests, meet set criteria, and are motivated to beat their drug addiction, they will be considered for a place on an intensive six-month programme in one of the department's drug treatment units.
Some have criticised the department for denying prisoners access to the units if they test positive for drugs. While on the surface this appears to make sense, the rule is consistent with similar residential programmes in the community.
That said, as drugs can take months to leave a person's system, Corrections has to be pragmatic.
And as I have said, we are in the process of doubling the number of units in operation to six, which will mean 500 places a year - a significant improvement.
We are also look at early interventions and are working with Police and the Courts to more readily identify new offenders who abuse drugs and alcohol before the problem becomes entrenched.
Intervening at an earlier stage will help prevent more serious crimes in the future.
As with all things in Corrections, fighting addiction is an extremely difficult area, but we are making progress.
Health
It is widely recognised that the health status of those entering prison is generally poor - much lower than the norm - so if we are serious about rehabilitation, we need to take the health of prisoners seriously.
It is for this reason that as Minister of Corrections and Associate Minister of Health many of the decisions I make are guided by the need to look after the health of prisoners and address their drug and alcohol dependency.
All newly sentenced prisoners are screened by a health professional within four hours of their arrival at prison and they receive a full health assessment within 24 hours of reception.
Individual treatment plans are then prepared, implemented, monitored and reviewed for each prisoner requiring health care of a significant or ongoing nature.
This will eventually be complimented with a new mental health screening tool, which will be rolled out across the country once it has been further refined at Mt Eden after being trialled in Christchurch Prison.
For many offenders this physical and mental health check will quite literally be their first step on the road to recovery.
And for them to be able to continue down this road, the Government is looking at new models for delivering health services to offenders.
The work is in its early stages, with a number of options being developed, but a more comprehensive system of health care for offenders is the desired result.
Up to now, too many prisoners suffering chronic medical conditions have received the required medical attention while in prison only to fall between the cracks once they have been released and perhaps moved to a different area of the country.
I think we can improve on this, and that's what I intend to achieve.
Society wins. And the maths stacks up. Every person we keep out of jail saves the taxpayer $69,000 a year.
Reintegrating Offenders
Having recognised how important employment is in reducing re-offending, the Prisoner Employment Strategy 2006-2009 aims to increase prisoners employed in activities from 40 per cent to 60 per cent of the total prison population by June 2008.
Improvements in the delivery of on-the-job training have resulted in prisoners gaining practical skills as well as achieving a total of 5500 NZQA unit standards, up from a previous high of 3600.
Another milestone reached was the total of 5.19 million prisoner work hours achieved last year, compared to 4.6 million in 05/06.
There are currently 600-plus more prisoners engaged in employment or employment related training than the full year average for 2005/06. The number has grown from an average of 2859 for 2005/06, to 3462 at the end of last month.
The number of prisoners on the Release to Work programme has increased to more than 100, with a target of 160 by December. A year ago the number was 19.
We have also identified and contacted several businesses and key industry players and are working with them to provide training and real jobs for prisoners.
All of these initiatives are designed to match skills with local labour markets, such as farming, forestry, construction, and fabrication.
Running alongside our efforts to rehabilitate prisoners is the equally important work we do to reintegrate prisoners back into the community.
Fourteen recently appointed reintegration caseworkers and six whanau liaison workers are now working with social workers to help high-needs prisoners.
Prisoners are getting help to find accommodation and employment on their release, and with managing their relationships and their finances - the four areas research tells us are most likely to contribute to re-offending.
Another project, a supported accommodation pilot in collaboration with Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Auckland Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation Society has proved so successful it is to be extended to Wellington and Christchurch.
There is an issue with finding houses, but without a home, there is little hope of adjusting to life outside prison.
Our new prisons, including the one officially opened yesterday in Otago, are also specifically designed to foster rehabilitation.
Not only does their layout and ethos have a direct impact on prisoners during their daily lives, but the design allows all government and NGO groups involved in rehabilitation and reintegration to be housed in the same buildings, so that they can work better together and share ideas.
Another development is that in the past six months Corrections has moved to further recognise its special relationship with NGOs.
It has appointed a new national volunteer advisor and five regional volunteer coordinators to support and grow volunteering activity.
Corrections' volunteer policy also is undergoing a comprehensive review to ensure that voluntary work in our prisons is structured and based on identified needs. Additional training and support is an important part of that.
I look forward to this special and productive relationship enduring long into the future
Over-representation of Maori in prison
There are many alarming statistics associated with our prisons. One of the worst is that 50 per cent all prisoners identify as Maori, despite Maori forming just 12.5 per cent of our population.
For Maori women the figure is even worse - at 60 per cent. This represents a catastrophe for Maori.
Corrections runs a number of programmes across our prisons designed specifically for Maori offenders in the justice system, including Maori focus units, bi-cultural therapy models and a new programme for Maori women.
But it is abundantly clear that we must gain a much deeper understanding of what drives this unacceptable reality.
For this reason the Government is undertaking detailed research on this extremely complex issue, and is reviewing the effectiveness of its current programmes.
These are long-term projects, for which there is no quick fix. However, nothing is too hard where there's a will and we are determined find a New Zealand solution for this unacceptable reality for indigenous peoples worldwide.
Sentencing
Sentencing is at the heart of our justice system - and this too is being improved.
Serious repeat offenders will continue to be sent to prison. The community must be kept safe, and for some offenders there is really no alternative.
But research shows that offenders sent to prison are more likely to return to prison than those on community-based sentences. So for those who have committed lesser offences there should be alternative ways for them to repay their debt to society.
New community sentences including Home Detention as a stand-alone sentence are likely from later this year following Cabinet approval of a new sentencing structure being considered by Parliament.
Home Detention has proved to be an effective and safe sentence with 98 percent not re-offending or being reconvicted while serving Home Detention.
More than 95 percent of the 1290 offenders on Home Detention last year served their sentence without any formal enforcement action having to be taken against them.
Home Detention and community-based sentences such as the proposed Community Detention and Intensive Supervision can enable offenders to continue to work, study, and maintain family and community relationships.
All these factors support the rehabilitation of offenders and increase the chances of turning them into law-abiding members of our society.
This wider choice of sentences will help judges weigh reintegration and rehabilitation factors more closely when assessing the sentence most appropriate for each offender.
I would like to finish by saying that every New Zealander wants a safer society. It's how we get there that forms the debate.
Fear drives some people to seek change, the desire for retribution motivates others. Others still feel strongly that taking a long-term view is the only sensible way to make society safer.
Then there is the multitude of groups of many races that have a stake - victims of crime, offenders, families of both, police, Corrections staff, volunteers, judges, lawyers, academics, politicians, the media.
All have a voice. All have a contribution to make. But do we have the environment in New Zealand so that everyone can be heard?
There is so much that is emotional about law and order, so much that is reactive and reactionary.
The challenge for us is to work out how to find the right balance to make and support the best policies for New Zealand. This requires courage and leadership.
The conference last year provided a fantastic springboard for meaningful debate on law and order, with penal policy at its core.
I think we have made real progress. It has been a tough year for Corrections, but the Government will not turn back on its commitment to making meaningful changes to our corrections and justice system.
I genuinely hope that we will have the support of the community, including you in the audience today, to continue to work to make the system as good as it can possibly be.
I believe that together we can make a difference.
Thank you.
Kia Ora.
Thank you for inviting me to address your conference. I'm delighted to be here because Corrections and the Prison Fellowship share a similar vision - the rehabilitation of prisoners.
I would like to acknowledge Judge David Carruthers, and MPs Chester Borrows, Judy Turner and Nandor Tanczos.
The Prison Fellowship's ability to deliver sound, innovative programmes and services to prisoners is impressive. I particularly admire the strong focus on restorative justice.
This weekend's conference is themed on reintegrating offenders. Helping them adjust to life in the community is a huge challenge, as they can become institutionalised and lose links to the outside world.
The Government is working hard to improve the way it manages offenders' transition back into society. I will outline progress later.
I'm not going to mince my words. The past year has been extremely challenging for Corrections. Liam Ashley's death focused the public's attention on prisoner transport and Graeme Burton's rampage generated very real concerns for many New Zealanders.
In doing so, it also forced Corrections to do some serious soul searching. The department has had to show leadership and accept its responsibility just as it has to do everything in its power to ensure similar tragedies don't occur again.
It has looked closely at policies and procedures surrounding transportation of prisoners, Corrections' interaction with the Parole Board and the role of its Probation and Offender Services.
I can assure you that Probation and Offender Service processes for managing high-risk parolees have already been tightened and work in this area will be ongoing.
I will also receive a comprehensive report from Corrections on options for modifying prisoner transportation, and I will be considering this very carefully.
Liam Ashley's death and the murder of Karl Kuchenbecker have highlighted the extremely difficult and challenging environment that Corrections and Probation Officers work in.
They do an excellent job on the whole, and the public, politicians and media need to understand that.
The 2900 volunteers who work in our 20 prisons also do an exceptional job. They provide invaluable assistance in countless ways. Many of the organisations are present here today. I would like to acknowledge your tremendous efforts.
In total there are about 8500 Corrections staff and volunteers who make this very complex and volatile system work.
It's worth reminding people: Yes, mistakes, accidents, and failures do occur, which cause hurt, anguish and tragedy for families, and systems must be constantly improved as we move forward.
But, there is a story here that helps put this in perspective. New Zealand has more than 7900 offenders inside prison walls today and manages 64,000 sentences in the community - every year.
That is no mean feat. Dealing professionally with these kinds of numbers with relatively few incidents might not make the front page of a newspaper but it tells of a department that is far from the dysfunctional organisation that critics allege.
Unfortunately, the appetite for witch-hunts and scapegoats appears to know no bounds. Hit-and-run criticism, but nothing in the way of proposed solutions, barring desperate re-runs of the 1990s, when privatisation was hailed as a magic bullet.
I would like to re-state Labour's position. There will always be an integral need for NGOs to be involved in prisons and community sentences, and their input on policy will always be valued. They have great knowledge, experience, energy and dedication.
But the running of our prisons will remain a fundamental role of the state. Commercial organisations should not be allowed to view the incarceration of our citizens as an opportunity to make a profit.
And I don't accept private prison operators are necessarily more efficient or effective. Our public prisons are routinely criticised, but recent British media reports have exposed huge flaws in the private prison system.
Good undercover journalism last month unearthed a catalogue of failings at the privately-run Rye Hill jail in Britain's Midlands.
The jail has been strongly criticised over the murder of one inmate and the "avoidable" suicides of other vulnerable prisoners. Intimidation of staff is rife, as is the availability of contraband and prisoner threats on staff. Serious assaults and positive random drug tests among prisoners at the jail have also risen.
And still the attacks on our system continue unabated.
One can only imagine the impact it has on the personal lives of Corrections staff and volunteers. I do wonder at times what makes you - staff and volunteers - continue in your jobs in the face of such an onslaught.
All I can say is that I am truly thankful that you do - and so should all New Zealanders, if they thought about it for a moment.
However, I do not want to dwell too long on the negatives. There is a huge amount of encouraging initiatives progressing.
Of course, the Government and Corrections have to acknowledge certain realities and continue to make improvements where necessary.
But we will not allow ourselves to be deflected from the task at hand. Our challenge is to continue the momentum we have built up in making sensible changes to the way with deal with offenders.
The thinking around law and order has undergone significant change and I am confident that Corrections has a very clear vision of where our thinking is going and what needs to be done.
First, we must continue to protect society by locking up repeat serious and dangerous offenders.
This has been and always will be fundamental to what the department does. The Government has made very good progress in recent years, modernising our prisons so that escapes have dropped by 78 per cent since the late 1990s.
But our legal responsibility to reduce re-offending by rehabilitating prisoners is also important.
In doing so we will see fewer victims and help make our communities safer for all.
Already, there are about 1200 prisoners on or about to start programmes designed to address aspects of their offending.
These include:
· one-on-one psychological counselling,
· nine-month courses at Kia Marama and Te Piriti special treatment units for child sex offenders,
· the nine-month rehabilitative programme for violent offenders at the Violence Prevention Unit at Rimutaka Prison,
· the community-based Montgomery House violence prevention programme in Hamilton;
· FOCUS programme for young male prisoners,
· a new Short Motivational Programme for prisoners serving short sentences.
And there has been a great deal of recent extra funding. Last year the Government invested additional money to support several Corrections initiatives and the Effective Interventions programme.
In the four years from 2006 - 2010 Corrections is receiving: $112 million to implement Effective Interventions, $28.5 million for the prisoner employment strategy and rehabilitation programmes, $48 million for home detention and $36 million for community-based sentences.
The new initiatives supported by this funding include:
· Two more prison-based drug and alcohol units over the next 18 months - bringing the total number of such units to six.
· Two new high-intensity special treatment units to deliver a new 300-hour programme that targets high-risk offenders. I will talk about this shortly, but I want to say here that programmes running in these units have been shown to significantly reduce re-offending rates.
· Extending the prisoner employment strategy, improving both the volume and the quality of employment and education available to prisoners.
· This funding will also boost treatment programmes for offenders serving community-based sentences. We know that targeted interventions at this stage lower chances of offending escalating to a point where prison becomes the only option.
· It will also pay for more than 200 additional community probation service staff to manage the new sentence of home detention and the new community based sentences of intensive supervision and community detention.
I cannot cover these all in detail here, but I would like to spend a bit of time looking at some of the newer initiatives.
· The first is the 140-hour Rehabilitation Programme for offenders at medium risk of re-offending.
This is designed for offenders in prison and on community-based sentences, and has been up and running since September 2006.
We have high hopes that it will be available in all five prison regions, and main cities within a month or two and have trained up 80 staff to deliver this programme.
The programme will be almost twice the length of the Straight Thinking programme it replaces, giving it a much better chance of being effective.
· Another new programme, a 300-hour Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation programme, will soon be trialled in a purpose-built unit at Waikeria Prison in Waikato.
This programme will encourage higher risk offenders to take responsibility for themselves by critically examining their thinking and behaviour instead of being instructed on how to behave.
Again, it is part of the philosophy of incentivising prisoners to make necessary changes themselves. We can show them how to change, but they have to want to change.
I am confident that following the trial, we will open two additional units within the prison system next year.
As we continue to develop new programmes, and create more opportunities for offenders to gain new skills, we must constantly assess the effectiveness of current initiatives and be bold enough to make changes where necessary.
A key area of work for Corrections is addressing prisoners' abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Drugs have a devastating effect on the heath and well-being of our communities, and their impact on our prisons and prisoners is no different.
In 1999, 83 per cent of prisoners were assessed as having a problem with drugs and/or alcohol at some point in their lives.
Clearly we need to look at the effects on rehabilitation. Keeping drugs out of prisons is a great place to start.
It is a constant battle, but we are making progress. In the late 1990s, in some units 46 per cent of prisoners tested positive for drugs. Last year, this dropped to 15 per cent. More contraband is also being detected.
This has come about through building 17 kilometres of perimeter fencing, a doubling of the number of drug dogs, increased surveillance at gates and checkpoints, new scanning equipment and intelligence gathering capabilities.
However, we must keep improving.
It is vital that we stem the flow of drugs into prisons. Continued drug use in prisons leads to family and visitors being pressured to smuggle drugs and it sees our rehabilitation interventions undermined.
On the demand side, the department is also making progress. It is increasing the incentives for Identified Drug Using prisoners to become drug-free, improving access to rehabilitation activities, and providing more effective management of persistent drug offenders
Research has shown that reconviction rates for those who have completed courses in one of these drug treatment units are 13 per cent lower over a 24-month period than for those who go untreated.
These are not ad hoc interventions. Far from it. The process starts on arrival at the prison gates and continues throughout a prisoner's sentence.
When offenders arrive they receive a medical check, which along with periodic random drug tests give the department a clearer picture of the health needs of prisoners.
To be admitted to a rehabilitation programme or reintegrative activity, Identified Drug Using prisoners have to provide two negative drug tests.
If they pass the drug tests, meet set criteria, and are motivated to beat their drug addiction, they will be considered for a place on an intensive six-month programme in one of the department's drug treatment units.
Some have criticised the department for denying prisoners access to the units if they test positive for drugs. While on the surface this appears to make sense, the rule is consistent with similar residential programmes in the community.
That said, as drugs can take months to leave a person's system, Corrections has to be pragmatic.
And as I have said, we are in the process of doubling the number of units in operation to six, which will mean 500 places a year - a significant improvement.
We are also look at early interventions and are working with Police and the Courts to more readily identify new offenders who abuse drugs and alcohol before the problem becomes entrenched.
Intervening at an earlier stage will help prevent more serious crimes in the future.
As with all things in Corrections, fighting addiction is an extremely difficult area, but we are making progress.
Health
It is widely recognised that the health status of those entering prison is generally poor - much lower than the norm - so if we are serious about rehabilitation, we need to take the health of prisoners seriously.
It is for this reason that as Minister of Corrections and Associate Minister of Health many of the decisions I make are guided by the need to look after the health of prisoners and address their drug and alcohol dependency.
All newly sentenced prisoners are screened by a health professional within four hours of their arrival at prison and they receive a full health assessment within 24 hours of reception.
Individual treatment plans are then prepared, implemented, monitored and reviewed for each prisoner requiring health care of a significant or ongoing nature.
This will eventually be complimented with a new mental health screening tool, which will be rolled out across the country once it has been further refined at Mt Eden after being trialled in Christchurch Prison.
For many offenders this physical and mental health check will quite literally be their first step on the road to recovery.
And for them to be able to continue down this road, the Government is looking at new models for delivering health services to offenders.
The work is in its early stages, with a number of options being developed, but a more comprehensive system of health care for offenders is the desired result.
Up to now, too many prisoners suffering chronic medical conditions have received the required medical attention while in prison only to fall between the cracks once they have been released and perhaps moved to a different area of the country.
I think we can improve on this, and that's what I intend to achieve.
Society wins. And the maths stacks up. Every person we keep out of jail saves the taxpayer $69,000 a year.
Reintegrating Offenders
Having recognised how important employment is in reducing re-offending, the Prisoner Employment Strategy 2006-2009 aims to increase prisoners employed in activities from 40 per cent to 60 per cent of the total prison population by June 2008.
Improvements in the delivery of on-the-job training have resulted in prisoners gaining practical skills as well as achieving a total of 5500 NZQA unit standards, up from a previous high of 3600.
Another milestone reached was the total of 5.19 million prisoner work hours achieved last year, compared to 4.6 million in 05/06.
There are currently 600-plus more prisoners engaged in employment or employment related training than the full year average for 2005/06. The number has grown from an average of 2859 for 2005/06, to 3462 at the end of last month.
The number of prisoners on the Release to Work programme has increased to more than 100, with a target of 160 by December. A year ago the number was 19.
We have also identified and contacted several businesses and key industry players and are working with them to provide training and real jobs for prisoners.
All of these initiatives are designed to match skills with local labour markets, such as farming, forestry, construction, and fabrication.
Running alongside our efforts to rehabilitate prisoners is the equally important work we do to reintegrate prisoners back into the community.
Fourteen recently appointed reintegration caseworkers and six whanau liaison workers are now working with social workers to help high-needs prisoners.
Prisoners are getting help to find accommodation and employment on their release, and with managing their relationships and their finances - the four areas research tells us are most likely to contribute to re-offending.
Another project, a supported accommodation pilot in collaboration with Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Auckland Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation Society has proved so successful it is to be extended to Wellington and Christchurch.
There is an issue with finding houses, but without a home, there is little hope of adjusting to life outside prison.
Our new prisons, including the one officially opened yesterday in Otago, are also specifically designed to foster rehabilitation.
Not only does their layout and ethos have a direct impact on prisoners during their daily lives, but the design allows all government and NGO groups involved in rehabilitation and reintegration to be housed in the same buildings, so that they can work better together and share ideas.
Another development is that in the past six months Corrections has moved to further recognise its special relationship with NGOs.
It has appointed a new national volunteer advisor and five regional volunteer coordinators to support and grow volunteering activity.
Corrections' volunteer policy also is undergoing a comprehensive review to ensure that voluntary work in our prisons is structured and based on identified needs. Additional training and support is an important part of that.
I look forward to this special and productive relationship enduring long into the future
Over-representation of Maori in prison
There are many alarming statistics associated with our prisons. One of the worst is that 50 per cent all prisoners identify as Maori, despite Maori forming just 12.5 per cent of our population.
For Maori women the figure is even worse - at 60 per cent. This represents a catastrophe for Maori.
Corrections runs a number of programmes across our prisons designed specifically for Maori offenders in the justice system, including Maori focus units, bi-cultural therapy models and a new programme for Maori women.
But it is abundantly clear that we must gain a much deeper understanding of what drives this unacceptable reality.
For this reason the Government is undertaking detailed research on this extremely complex issue, and is reviewing the effectiveness of its current programmes.
These are long-term projects, for which there is no quick fix. However, nothing is too hard where there's a will and we are determined find a New Zealand solution for this unacceptable reality for indigenous peoples worldwide.
Sentencing
Sentencing is at the heart of our justice system - and this too is being improved.
Serious repeat offenders will continue to be sent to prison. The community must be kept safe, and for some offenders there is really no alternative.
But research shows that offenders sent to prison are more likely to return to prison than those on community-based sentences. So for those who have committed lesser offences there should be alternative ways for them to repay their debt to society.
New community sentences including Home Detention as a stand-alone sentence are likely from later this year following Cabinet approval of a new sentencing structure being considered by Parliament.
Home Detention has proved to be an effective and safe sentence with 98 percent not re-offending or being reconvicted while serving Home Detention.
More than 95 percent of the 1290 offenders on Home Detention last year served their sentence without any formal enforcement action having to be taken against them.
Home Detention and community-based sentences such as the proposed Community Detention and Intensive Supervision can enable offenders to continue to work, study, and maintain family and community relationships.
All these factors support the rehabilitation of offenders and increase the chances of turning them into law-abiding members of our society.
This wider choice of sentences will help judges weigh reintegration and rehabilitation factors more closely when assessing the sentence most appropriate for each offender.
I would like to finish by saying that every New Zealander wants a safer society. It's how we get there that forms the debate.
Fear drives some people to seek change, the desire for retribution motivates others. Others still feel strongly that taking a long-term view is the only sensible way to make society safer.
Then there is the multitude of groups of many races that have a stake - victims of crime, offenders, families of both, police, Corrections staff, volunteers, judges, lawyers, academics, politicians, the media.
All have a voice. All have a contribution to make. But do we have the environment in New Zealand so that everyone can be heard?
There is so much that is emotional about law and order, so much that is reactive and reactionary.
The challenge for us is to work out how to find the right balance to make and support the best policies for New Zealand. This requires courage and leadership.
The conference last year provided a fantastic springboard for meaningful debate on law and order, with penal policy at its core.
I think we have made real progress. It has been a tough year for Corrections, but the Government will not turn back on its commitment to making meaningful changes to our corrections and justice system.
I genuinely hope that we will have the support of the community, including you in the audience today, to continue to work to make the system as good as it can possibly be.
I believe that together we can make a difference.
Thank you.