Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Mike Williams: Good news gets lost in busy political week

By Mike Williams
Hawkes Bay Today·
31 Aug, 2018 10:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Mike Williams. Photo / File

Mike Williams. Photo / File

In an extremely busy political week, one piece of very good news got swamped by National Party leaks, ministers getting into hot water and the Prime Minister making a major speech aimed at the business community.

This good news was an unexpected drop in the number of prisoners in our jails, hopefully reversing a trend which was threatening to force taxpayers to build a major - read billion-dollar – jail every few years.

The drop in prisoner numbers was nearly 700 between March and August and should have got the kind of media attention that the Government's decision not to build the American-style mega-prison on the Waikeria site received.

The sad old adage that bad news sells papers may have been at work here, but to be fair TVNZ's Ryan Boswell was on the case and the reason I know about this development is his call to me for comment.

This reduction puts the current prison population at 1000 fewer than the number that was predicted by the Justice Department and it is all the more remarkable for coming at a time when seasonal factors have usually, in the past, caused prisoner numbers to rise.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A number of key questions are posed by this surprise outcome. This include why the Justice Department repeatedly gets these predictions so wrong and was there a reduced inflow of prisoners over the period in question, or did more than normal get released.

After those key questions are satisfactorily settled there should be a review of what, if any, new strategies did Corrections or the other players in the Justice sector adopt over the period and what effect these might have had on the prison muster.

With the mega-jail off the table, we can assume that many in the aforementioned Justice sector began to take seriously the Labour-led Government's objective of reducing the prison population by 30 per cent over time and to look for "low hanging fruit" which they found.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One simple idea that I mentioned in a previous column without realising that it was already getting tested is called "parole-ready".

This programme supplies specialist advisors to work with long-serving prisoners to ensure that they have improved access to rehabilitation programmes and good plans for release.

Perhaps the most important task these advisors provide is guidance for illiterate prisoners in filling in all the forms required before an appearance in front of a Parole Board can occur.

Another initiative managed to speed up the remand process and make a serious dent in the backlog of prisoners on remand, many of who go free as soon as they manage.

Discover more

New Zealand

Who is Meka Whaitiri? Grassroots origins of stood down minister

30 Aug 08:49 PM

What's on this weekend

31 Aug 06:00 PM

Mark Mitchell: Firmly on victims' side

16 Sep 09:29 PM

This Corrections-led initiative was a rare but encouraging example of collaboration between the Police, the Courts and Corrections. May we have many more of these.

A pilot scheme which is showing real promise aims to extend electronic monitoring to many more defendants by assisting those with literacy problems to fill in the forms to make the necessary applications for this kind of monitoring in preference to going to jail.

Further innovative thinking by the Corrections Department includes greater assistance in finding accommodation for offenders who qualify for home detention and Smartphone applications which help defendants comply with their bail conditions and therefore avoid a spell in jail.

My guess is that some long term strategies are also finally beginning to pay off and should be stepped up.

One of Judith Collins' contributions as Minister of Corrections was the establishment of two Drug and Alcohol Courts in Auckland and Henderson.

These Courts substitute monitored abstention from drugs and alcohol for a jail sentence and there can now be no doubt of their success in getting a small proportion of those offenders lucky enough to be assigned to those Courts living normal lives and avoiding jail.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It is high time these trials were declared the successes they clearly are and the model extended to places like Hawke's Bay where the need is obvious and immediate.

Another slow-burning scheme which is starting to get traction is the promotion of post-release employment.

Senior Corrections manager, Steve Cunningham, has been beavering away at lining up employment for prisoners on release for some years now and has slowly but surely sold the idea to an increasing pool of employers.

Shortages of Labour obviously help Steve in his quest, but he deserves real credit for the success of a strategy which research tells us is the best way of reducing reoffending.

To get the kind of long term reductions in prisoner numbers that were achieved in some States of the United States there will need to be a greater focus of normalising prison life, promoting in-jail education and building prisoner's skills, but let's give Corrections some kudos for a good start.

■ Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP