Annual Report 2022/23

Kua whakaatu tō mātou tira, tata ki te 10,000 tāngata te tokomaha, i te ngaiotanga me te manawaroatanga inati i ngā marama 12 kua hipa. Hei rōpū whakahaere, i haere tonu ā mātou mahi whakahaere i tētahi taupori mauhere tuatini, i te taha hoki o te hunga tokomaha kei ngā hāmenetanga ā-hapori, i te wā hoki e mahi ana i te 24/7 ki te tiaki i ō tātou hapori.

Pērā ki ētahi atu rōpū whakahaere huhua o Aotearoa, he nui ngā wero i pā ki a mātou i te tau kua hipa, o te kimi me te pupuri ki ngā kaimahi aroākapa, ina koa i ō tātou whare herehere. I whakapakaritia e mātou ā mātou mahi rapu kaimahi hou hei urupare, otirā ko te hua o tērā, i kaha te piki o ngā kaitono mahi mō ngā tūranga Āpiha Whakatika, otirā he 2,948 ngā tono mai i te Oketopa 2022 ki te Pēpuere 2023. I tīkina hoki e mātou ētahi kaimahi 1,000 ki ngā tūranga aroākapa hei te 2022/23, otirā arā noa atu ngā kaimahi hou e kuhukuhu mai ana.

I whāia e mātou ētahi hatepe e haumaru tonu ai ngā kawenga mahi i ō tātou whare herehere tae atu ki te nuku haere i ngā mauhere hei whakatōpū i te taupori mauhere ki ētahi rohenga iti. Ahakoa nā tēnei i māmā ake ngā taumahatanga i runga i ngā kaimahi i ngā wāhi i pokea, ā, me te whakahaere tonu i ngā toronga ahakoa te āhua, ki te nuinga o ngā whare herehere hāunga te kotahi, he pānga tonu tō tētahi ki te kawenga whānui o te hōtaka mō te tau.

Ahakoa ēnei wero, i koke whakamua tonu ngā panonitanga mā tā mātou rautaki ā-whakahaere a Hōkai Rangi.

I uru ki tēnei te whanaketanga me te pānuitanga o te Mahere Mahi Whaikaha hou, ka āwhina ki te tautoko i ngā tāngata whaikaha katoa kei te whare herehere, e pai ai ō rātou putanga hauora, oranga hoki.

I pai hoki te koke whakamua o Te Rautaki Wāhine o Wāhine – E rere ana ki te pae hou. I tatū ētahi panonitanga hei urupare pai ake ki ngā matea ahurei o ngā wāhine i te whare herehere, ā, me te hunga hāmene ā-hapori. I uru ki tēnei te whakauru i ētahi hōtaka motuhake hou, ngā rōpū mahi ā-hapori wāhine anake, me ngā whakangungu whētuki mā ngā kaimahi.

I tīmata hoki te whakatinana i ngā pūmatawai tinana katoa e āhei ai ngā kaimahi ki te whakamahi i ngā hangarau hihi-X ki te kimi parakete me te kore e mate ki te whakahaere i tētahi rapunga wete kākahu.

Ahakoa koinei tētahi anake o ngā utauta maha e wātea ana ki ngā kaimahi ki te ārai atu i te parakete e kuhu atu ana ki ngā whare herehere, koinei tētahi huarahi e whakaiti haere ana i ngā tūraru haumaru ki ngā kaimahi me te hunga kei rō whare herehere, me te tiaki anō hoki i te mana o te tangata i te wā o ngā tirohanga. Ki ōku whakaaro, e whakaatu ana tēnei i tō mātou āhei ki te whakahāngai i ā mātou tikanga mahi onāianei ki te takunetanga oranga o Hōkai Rangi.

I noho tonu ko te haumaru o ā mātou kaimahi āroākapa te aronga matua, ā, i mahi ngātahi mātou me ngā Pirihimana kia ngāwari ake ai te pūrongo i ngā haupatu kaimahi, i te wā hoki e tuku ana i ngā whakangungu whakawhiti kōrero rautata hei wāhanga o ā mātou mahi ki te whakaiti i te ririhau ki ngā kaimahi aroākapa i ngā whare herehere.

I whakarongo hoki mātou ki ngā whakahoki kōrero i ngā hoa rangapū, ngā rōpū mātai ā-waho pēnei i Te Kaitiaki Mana Tangata, otirā mātua rā te aro hoki ki ā mātou kaimahi. Hei uruparetanga, i tukua e mātou tā mātou marohitanga panoni a Hōkai Rangi - The Pathway Forward - Te Ara Whakamua, ā, i whakawhiti kōrero mātou ki ngā kaimahi, me te whakaū i te marohitanga i te Ākuhata 2023. Ka puta i tēnei ētahi panonitanga ki tō mātou anga ā-whakahaere, e āhei ai mātou ki te waihanga i tētahi pae whaihua ake hei kawe i a Hōkai Rangi, hei whakapai ake i te haumarutanga me te oranga o ā mātou kaimahi, ā, e āhei ai mātou ki te whakatutuki i ngā whāinga o te whakaiti i te mahi hara anō, te whakapai ake i te haumaru tūmatanui me te whakaiti i te tokomaha o te Māori kei rō whare herehere.

Ahakoa he nui ā mātou mahi i herea e te KOWHEORI-19, ā, me te tokoiti kaimahi, e tino manawanui ana ahau ki te anamata. Nā Hōkai Rangi mātou i whiwhi tūāpapa ai ki te koke whakamua, ā, ko ngā mahi kua oti kē i te tau nei he tohu o te pakari o ngā mahi a ngā kaimahi puta noa i te motu.

Nōku te hōnore nui ki te ārahi i tēnei tira, ā, e tino whakahī ana ahau ki tō rātou manawa-tītī ki te āwhina i te iwi ki te huarahi o te oranga me te tiaki i ō tātou hapori - ngā mihi maioha.

Our team of nearly 10,000 people has demonstrated extraordinary professionalism and resilience over the past 12 months. As an organisation, we continued to manage an increasingly complex prison population alongside a high number of people on communitybased sentences, all while operating 24/7 to keep our communities safe.

Like many organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand, the past year saw us face significant challenges recruiting and retaining frontline staff, especially in our prisons. We ramped up our recruitment efforts in response, and as a result saw a strong increase in the number of job applications for corrections officer roles, with 2,948 applications received from October 2022 to February 2023 alone. We also recruited nearly 1,000 people into frontline roles during 2022/23, with many more new recruits continuing to come through the pipeline.

We took steps to keep our prisons running safely and securely, including carrying out prisoner movements to consolidate the prison population into fewer units. While this helped ease pressure on staff at our most affected sites and allowed us to resume visits in varying forms at all but one prison, there was still an impact on our overall programme delivery for the year.

Despite these challenges, we continued to make considerable change through our organisational strategy, Hōkai Rangi.

This included developing and releasing a new Disability Action Plan, which will help support tāngata whaikaha Māori/disabled people in prison to experience improved health and wellbeing outcomes.

Our Wāhine – E rere ana ki te pae hou Women's Strategy continued to make good progress. We made changes to better respond to the unique needs of women both in prison and serving a community sentence. This included introducing new tailored programmes, women-specific community work crews, and trauma informed training for staff.

We also started implementing full body scanners to enable staff to use x-ray technology to search for contraband without the need to carry out a strip search.

While one of many tools our staff have to prevent contraband entering our prisons, it is one that reduces the safety risks to staff and people in prison while also maintaining people’s dignity when searches are carried out. To me, this clearly demonstrates our ability to align our existing operational practices with the wellbeing intent of Hōkai Rangi.

The safety of our frontline staff remained a top priority, and we worked alongside Police to make it easier to report staff assaults, alongside delivering tactical communications training as part of our work to reduce violence and aggression towards frontline staff in prisons.

We also listened to feedback from partners, external oversight bodies such as the Ombudsman, and most importantly our staff. In response, we released a proposal for change, Hōkai Rangi – The Pathway Forward – Te Ara Whakamua, which was consulted on with staff and finalised in August 2023. The outcome of this will bring change to parts of our organisational structure that will allow us to build a more effective platform for continuing our delivery of Hōkai Rangi, better improve the safety and wellbeing of our staff, and further enable us to achieve our goals of reducing reoffending, improving public safety and reducing Māori overrepresentation.

While a lot of our work has been constrained first by COVID-19 and then by staffing, I feel a huge amount of confidence about our future. Hōkai Rangi has given us the foundation to make the progress we have made to date, and what has already been achieved says a lot about the efforts of staff across the country.

It is a great honour to lead this team, and I could not be prouder of their constant commitment to helping people make positive changes in their lives and keeping our communities safe – ngā mihi maioha.