Phillip Smith.
The Department of Corrections underestimated Phillip Smith when they planned his temporary release from prison, an inquiry has found.
An summary of the findings of an inquiry into Smith's temporary release and subsequent departure to Brazil has been released.
The plan to manage Smith's release was "overly ambitious and misinformed" the inquiry has found.
The inquiry found that Corrections focused on the fact Smith was a well-behaved prisoner and had a support network outside prison and overlooked his "complex risk profile".
"Insufficient weight was given to prisoner Smith's complex risk profile and dangerous offending behaviour," the inquiry found.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith said he wouldn't make the complete review public due to security and privacy reasons.
Corrections' chief custodial officer Neil Beales has made 13 recommendations for changes to temporary releases after the incident.
Mr Beales recommended GPS monitoring would be the default precaution for all prisoners on temporary release.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith said Smith should not have been considered for temporary release, even though he was eligible.
"Smith is part of a small but challenging group of offenders who are focused on beating the system," Mr Smith said.
"We have on average about 4700 temporary releases each year and Smith has exposed faults in our release process which are being addressed with urgency.
"As well as our review I am working with our justice sector partners and Customs to ensure we share information to thwart these types of prisoners breaking the law."
He said he apologised to Smith's victims and offered to meet with them.
Smith was released for a 74-hour temporary release from Springhill Correctional Facility on November 6. He left the supervision of his approved sponsor and boarded a flight to Chile at Auckland International Airport that afternoon.
He was caught a week later in Brazil and arrested. He is due to be returned to New Zealand before December 1.
Corrections' chief custodial officer Neil Beales13 recommendations:
1. All policies, procedures, instructions and instances of when prisoners are outside of the secure prison perimeter must be reviewed and updated as a priority. These instances must include:
* Release to Work
* Temporary Release
* Temporary Removal
* External Self-care
* External Work Parties.
2. A Temporary Release Advisory Panel should be chaired by Prison Manager's to consider all temporary release applications and include implications of prisoners with high ROC/ROI4, life sentenced prisoners and those on Preventive Detention and any relevant intelligence available. The panel is to include:
* Case Management
* Community Probation
* Operational Intelligence
* Departmental Psychologist
* Police
* Local Community representative
* Child Youth and Family.
3. GPS monitoring should be considered as the default for all prisoners on temporary release unless otherwise authorised by the Prison Manager.
4. Contact monitoring arrangements for all prisoners on temporary release must be clearly described, accurately recorded on licence conditions and agreed to by the sponsor, employer prisoner and Prison Manager.
5. Temporary releases must be limited to a maximum of 12 hours unless approved and signed off by the National Commissioner.
6. A full review of the sponsorship process must be undertaken.
7. An investigation is to be undertaken into the psychological management of prisoner Smith as a result of information discovered during this review.
8. A review of the Te Piriti Child Sexual Offending programme be undertaken by an independent expert in the field.
9. A weekly report of all prisoners subject to temporary release must be provided to the Prison Manager at the beginning of each business week for their attention. This report will highlight any potential risk areas.
10. The revised Prisoner Placement system as it pertains to the minimum security classification should be implemented as soon as possible following regulatory change.
11. All relevant Corrections staff to be trained in the new temporary releases process.
12. All managers and staff must be reminded that during any incident a time bound log of events must be commenced and maintained.
13. Internal control monitoring should include the temporary release application process.