Improving public safety

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Keeping communities safe by ensuring offenders complete the sentences and orders handed down by our justice system.
This will always be our bottom line.

Improving public safety flowchart (PDF 45 KB)

An effective justice system is fundamental to public safety in New Zealand.

Public safety is improved when:

  • the prison environment is safe and secure
  • offenders comply with the sentences and orders handed down by the Courts, and are held to account when they do not
  • the Judiciary and New Zealand Parole Board are provided with good quality information on which to base decisions
  • probation officers are equipped to do their job safely and effectively.

The public expects prisoners to be securely accommodated, and community-based offenders to comply with their sentences and orders. It is our responsibility to ensure this happens. Sentence and order compliance levels are at their highest ever, and
escape rates and contraband indicator levels are at their lowest ever. We will work on this success by keeping more contraband out of our prisons, and managing community-based offenders to increase sentence and order compliance levels further. We will
ensure our staff are safer, more engaged, and better equipped to provide motivation and encouragement, and create lasting change in offenders’ lives.

Successfully addressing offenders’ needs means less re-offending and safer communities. We will seek local solutions to local problems, and find ways to address offenders’ varied needs.

By 2016, we will demonstrate our success through:

  • more than 97 percent of offenders in the community complying with their sentences and orders, or being held to account.

 

The integrity of sentences and orders is maintained and offenders are held to account.

The integrity of sentences and orders is maintained when prisoners are accommodated securely, when crime within prisons (such as introduced contraband) is prevented, andwhen community-based offenders comply with their sentences and orders.

In recent years, we have greatly reduced escape and contraband levels in our prisons.Breakout escapes have reduced from 11 in the 2005/06 financial year, to three in 2011/12. Levels of positive general random drug tests have reduced from 15 percent
in 2005/06 to four percent in 2011/12.

We have introduced Audio Visual Link technology (AVL) in courts and prisons, enabling prisoners to ‘virtually’ attend court hearings without leaving prison. This reduces the risks associated with transporting them to court. We will continue to expand AVL through our prisons.

Over the next three years we will ensure that sentence and order integrity is maintained and offenders are held to account by:

  • implementing a consistent set of security regimes across the prison network
  • investing in prison upgrades to achieve a common set of security standards
  • expanding Global Positioning System (GPS) use to better monitor high-risk offenders who are serving community sentences or on parole
  • expanding AVL in prisons
  • broadening the range of drug and alcohol interventions available to offenders.

By 2016, we will demonstrate our success through:

  • fewer escapes from custody each year, when compared to the previous year
  • fewer than six percent of general random drug tests showing positive results
  • more than 97 percent of offenders complying with their home detention sentence, or being held to account
  • more than 97 percent of offenders complying with their community-based sentence, or being held to account
  • more than 97 percent of offenders complying with their post-release order, or being held to account.

 

Risks of harm to others are minimised.

We manage offenders in a way that minimises the risk of harm to others. This means preventing prisoner assaults on staff and on other prisoners. All instances of serious assault on staff are investigated, and Corrections is working to address the increase
in assault levels recorded over the last two years. In the community, we are working to minimise the risk that offenders pose to staff and the public.

Over the next three years we will:

  • establish a residence for individuals on public protection orders 1
  • expand prisoners’ temporary release options through Global Positioning System (GPS) use, allowing more prisoners to participate in release to work opportunities without compromising public safety
  • implement a pathway for prisoners who are contemplating leaving their gang associations
  • implement the staff safety Expert Advisory Panel recommendations to achieve a safer work environment.

By 2016, we will demonstrate our success through:

  • an overall reduction of 50 percent in the rate of serious prisoner assaults on staff
  • a reduction in the rate of serious prisoner assaults on other prisoners each year, when compared to the previous year
  • fewer than one percent of offenders serving community-based sentences against whom an alert has been raised are convicted of a violent offence.

 

The Judiciary and New Zealand Parole Board make informed decisions.


We will provide the Judiciary and New Zealand Parole Board with the right information at the right time. We will provide high quality information on offenders’ risk to others, and the likelihood of re-offending. This will enable the Judiciary and New Zealand Parole
Board to make well informed decisions.

Victims are at the centre of our concern, and we will ensure they are kept informed about offender hearings and releases.
Over the next three years we will:

  • implement legislation to reduce unnecessary parole hearings. This will alleviate stress on victims of crime
  • provide serious crime victims the opportunity to stay informed about Board decisions relating to the person who offended against them.
By 2016, we will demonstrate our success through:
  • a reduced level of re-offending by offenders on parole or home detention, compared to the baseline of the previous year.


1 Subject to legislation before the House being passed into law.