Hon Mark Mitchell
Minister of Corrections

The Corrections Amendment Bill has passed its third reading in Parliament today, making a number of changes to improve safety and rehabilitation in prisons.

Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says it’s important the law is reflective of the increasingly complex prison environment.

“Corrections manages some of New Zealand’s most dangerous people, and violence and aggression in prisons poses an ongoing challenge. Increasing staff safety is one of my key priorities for Corrections and this Bill supports that goal,” Mr Mitchell says.

“Through new intelligence provisions, the Bill gives Corrections clear powers to improve prison and public safety through monitoring prisoner calls, while also including safeguards to ensure transparency and privacy.

“Corrections will be using intelligence to identify prisoners who seek to harm other people in prison or members of the public.

“Reducing reoffending through effective rehabilitation is another of the Government’s priorities. To support this, the Bill enables limited mixing of remand accused and remand convicted prisoners, which will enable Corrections to expand rehabilitation opportunities for remand prisoners.”

The Bill also makes a number of other changes that improve Corrections’ ability to operate prisons safely and efficiently, including:

• providing for the expanded use of body imaging searches of prisoners to further prevent contraband such as drugs and cell phones from entering prisons.
• strengthening processes for the authorisation and use of less-lethal weapons, such as pepper spray, to ensure frontline staff have the appropriate tools to keep themselves and prisons safe.
• ensuring a more timely and effective disciplinary process in prisons by allowing hearings to proceed in the absence of a prisoner if they have refused to attend.
• requiring prisoners segregated due to their risk of self-harm to be visited daily by a health professional – while this already happens in practice, it is now a legal requirement.
• requiring Corrections to report annually on its use of intelligence powers, to boost transparency and accountability.

“These changes will support our wider work to improve prison capacity and staffing levels, staff safety, and access to rehabilitation, including through the $1.9 billion investment in Budget 2024.

“The Bill will support Corrections to achieve its core purpose of improved prison and public safety and help deliver on the Government’s comprehensive plan to restore law and order and keep New Zealanders safe.”

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