The escape of murderer Phillip Smith has seen new restrictions introduced at Corrections - restrictions which have brought some Northland charitable projects to a halt.
He Korowai Trust chief executive Ricky Houghton said his Kaitaia-based organisation used supervised Ngawha prisoner work parties throughout 2014. They converted nine ex-state houses into homes for low-income families under the the trust's Whare Ora project.
Mr Houghton said there were talks of repeating the successful project but, after the Smith escape in November, the trust was told prisoners would not be coming anymore.
"I had about 10 prisoners coming every day. Now we have none. We've had to put a couple of projects on hold while we wait for funding."
The restrictions seemed "pretty severe" and could affect prisoner rehabilitation, Mr Houghton said.