Budget 2024 Decisions

Prisoner Population – Responding to Increasing Prisoner Numbers

In Budget 2024, $803.2 million over five years was allocated to enable Corrections to manage the costs associated with a growing prison population. This funding will support additional capacity within the prison network to be managed safely and securely.

As a result, Corrections will manage an increasing prisoner population, driven by changes to Justice Sector policy settings, while prioritising public safety.

How we will show our progress:

• We will report the actual prisoner population compared to the funded growth to 10,000 prisoners as of 30 June 2025, which was based on Justice Sector Projections as of 1 October 2023.
• We will report the overall actual corrections officer Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) compared to the forecast corrections officer FTEs requirement.

The initiative funded growth across the frontline workforce to ensure staffing levels meet the capacity and service level requirements of the prison network.  The majority of the FTE related funding relates to corrections officer increases and so this workforce measure has been selected.

The additional funding aims to address this growth while ensuring the safe, secure and humane operation of the prison network. Performance will also be assessed against our performance expectations as set out in the Estimates of Appropriations 2024/25 for Vote Corrections, for the Public Safety is Improved multi-category appropriation.

Rehabilitation Programmes – Extending to Remand Prisoners

This initiative proposes providing a consistent and effective level of reintegration and rehabilitative services to the remand prison population. The aim is to support the Government's Real Consequences for Crime policy, which seeks to expand access and improve reoffending outcomes.

Corrections plans to provide targeted services and interventions to meet the needs of remand prisoners, ensuring optimal outcomes.

The initiative is contingency funding from 2025/26 year onwards. These efforts aim to reduce reoffending, enhance public safety, and create better futures for New Zealanders.

Significant operational considerations must be addressed before implementation, and timeframes and monitoring mechanisms have yet to be confirmed.

The approach to monitoring and measuring success of this initiative is also pending. It is anticipated that the initiative’s effectiveness will ultimately be evaluated through reductions in reoffending and reimprisonment rates.

The funding is held in contingency to deliver rehabilitative and reintegration services to people on remand. The funding will be drawn down in the second half of the 2025 calendar year pending a comprehensive review of rehabilitation services and an implementation plan based on this review.