KEY POINTS:
The past year has been a tumultuous one for former West Coast whitewater rafting guide-turned-Cabinet minister Damien O'Connor.
First he was given the job of sticking his toe in the water to test the temperature for an overhaul of sentencing and parole legislation.
That review was prompted by
Government concerns about the soaring prison population and the increasing cost of keeping those prisoners behind bars.
Most of the money available for prisons was being used to keep the system afloat, leaving little for rehabilitation to break the cycle of re-offending.
The proposed reforms were potentially politically explosive, if for no other reason than that they would lead to fewer offenders being sent to prison.
O'Connor, with little help from fellow crime and justice ministers, began to talk about them a year ago.
He began by highlighting the unsettling and embarrassing fact that New Zealand locked up more offenders than any other developed country except the United States and Poland - and the Government nervously awaited the public response.
Although New Zealanders had previously appeared to be in favour of a tougher approach to crime, the nay-saying was muffled, and the Government's cause was aided by the emergence of several groups which countered the previously dominant voice of the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
Sensing a public mood change, the Government unveiled the details of the reforms in August.
It appeared to meet with public approval - a coup for O'Connor. A Herald-DigiPoll survey a month later asked voters how they felt about the Government's desire for "more sentences such as home detention for non-violent criminals, to cut the prison population?"
More than half - 54.1 per cent - backed the plan, and 38.5 opposed it.
But not everything was rosy for O'Connor.
After the release of the report by Noel Ingram, QC, on the Taito Phillip Field controversy, he took hits in the House over his previous role as the Associate Immigration Minister who had acceded to an extraordinarily large number of representations by the Mangere MP for work visas for prospective immigrants.
In the case of Thai tiler Sunan Siriwan, O'Connor approved applications for him and his wife, despite several warnings to his office from his own department over the matter.
O'Connor said the information wasn't given to him in time, but conceded that when he did get it, he ignored it because he trusted his Labour Party colleague.
He later admitted that "in hindsight" he should have taken action.
At the same time, National's vigorous law and order spokesman, Simon Power, was besieging the media with numerous examples of a Corrections Department in strife because of huge cost blow-out problems.
The year ended badly for O'Connor with a report that blamed the death of teenager Liam Ashley in a prison van on mistakes by the Corrections Department, Chubb Security and the Auckland Central Remand Prison.
There were calls for O'Connor to resign, which he resisted, and the advent of Christmas and the close of Parliament eased the pressure on him.
But last month, the Graeme Burton shooting spree created more negative publicity for Corrections, although the department believes it will be cleared by inquiries.
O'Connor says the deaths have been "tragic events, and they have clearly been the focus of a lot of work and consideration".
"But it's on-going work in terms of Corrections. We are managing a really difficult area of social responsibility, and I just have to take those hits as they come and get on. There's a lot of work to be done."
On Liam Ashley's death, he says: "Of course I did consider resigning. But I've got a job to do and I can't run away from what are difficult and challenging areas of responsibility."
His job, he says, is to ensure his department learns from its mistakes and makes sure such tragedies don't occur again.
O'Connor's justification seems to be that in terms of fatalities or nasty incidents, Corrections is always going to be vulnerable.
"I don't think anyone has ever seen the Corrections role as the most preferred portfolio in Cabinet."
The increased number of prisoners and the challenges of building new facilities had created "a difficult period for Corrections".
But with those issues being addressed, there was now room for further reforms.
O'Connor says he understands the public anxiety over the Burton and Ashley cases, but he's worried it may skew attitudes towards much- needed change.
He mounted a charm offensive on the Sensible Sentencing Trust early last year, but says he's been "losing a little respect for it because of its responses to incidents over the past 12 months".
"I thought we had a general understanding about the need for proper rehabilitation and reintegration.
"Any normal person who visits a prison wants to leave as quickly as possible. Those who think prison life is cushy need to take a visit ... It is a place of punishment; rights are taken away quite clearly.
"But we do have to keep in mind the reality of [prisoners] returning to the community and the best way to minimise the chance of re-offending."
Calls to reduce or abolish parole are therefore counter-productive, he says.
"If parole were wiped out, you'd have people coming straight out of prison and going free and I don't think anyone would sensibly think that is the best way to manage even high-risk offenders who have been locked up for a long time."
Changes would be made to ensure parole functioned as well as it could, and other reviews - including one of the head office - were being done to improve Corrections' management and performance.
But O'Connor worries that other important measures which the department is working on to reduce offending remain unacknowledged.
They include a renewed focus on rehabilitation, tackling drug and alcohol and mental health problems and ensuring prisoners who want it are given employment or educational training.
New contracts have been signed with the Salvation Army to provide up to six months of supported accommodation for prisoners in Wellington and Christchurch resettling into society.
This expands a pilot scheme running in Auckland.
The number of drug and alcohol units - an important factor in reducing offending - is to be increased, and Corrections is continuing to battle the Ministry of Health for more mental health support, although O'Connor says big strides have been made this year.
A recent study found 19 per cent of prison inmates had mental health problems.
Work is being done to match training and employment schemes with regional industries "to make sure there are job opportunities for people".
Qualifications Authority accreditation training is being introduced, and O'Connor produces a letter from a Ngawha inmate, one of the first to gain one of the qualifications, slipped to him when he attended a ceremony to mark the event.
It reads: "I have lenrt to stick at somthing an go with it all the way wich I dident relly have much motavion to do befor i started. an I want to lern some more things about life skilles so it stops my ofending and stops me from coming back. The issues i want to deal with is getting myself together so i can have to good things in life like my son an enjoy every day i get with him an try saport him."
That, says O'Conner, is what inspires him to keep going.
Every time he enters a prison, "you cannot help but be touched by the human issues we are trying to work through here. These are for the most part able-bodied men, New Zealanders who for whatever reason have gone off the rails. Just about every one of them lives in hope, hope that they can have life beyond the wire, beyond their sentence."
He knows that is impossible for some, but believes if he can help improve the chances for others, he will have helped reduce New Zealand's crime rate, which is his goal.
But in the meantime, he's bracing himself for another tumultuous year.
