Outcome: Sentence Options are used Effectively

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What the Department is seeking to achieve

The Department of Corrections improves public safety and contributes to sentence options being used effectively when it provides reports and advice that help:

  • the judiciary and the New Zealand Parole Board to make appropriate sentencing decisions
  • the judiciary to impose sentences commensurate to the crimes committed, through access to advice on risks posed by the offender and their suitability for rehabilitation.

What the Department will do to achieve this outcome

The Department supports the effective use of sentence options through the provision of presentence assessments and reparation reports to courts. In preparing reports to judicial authorities, the Department actively liaises with the New Zealand Police to ensure quality advice. The Department provides the New Zealand Parole Board with advice on the suitability of offenders for release on parole.

A focus for the Department over the next year will be the new pre-sentence and parole assessment processes. These processes were introduced to support the Sentencing and Parole Amendment Acts 2007.
Output classes that contribute to sentence options being used effectively include:

  • Output Class 1: Information Services.
  • Output Class 8: Services to the New Zealand Parole Board.