New prisons get funding

The Corrections Department will be given nearly $85 million to lock up and rehabilitate more criminals over the next four years.

In the Budget, $55.9 million was announced to build and to operate new men's and women's prison facilities in South Auckland over the next four years.

A further $22 million will be spent to help to introduce the Government's new sentencing and parole reform, which it estimates will take $90 million to complete.

In March, the Government announced the reforms, which include the ability to keep offenders imprisoned until their sentences expire, supervision for six months after release, and no parole for the worst offenders for 17 years, are expected to keep 300 more of New Zealand's worst offenders in jail once they are law.

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