Prisoner raped woman during release to work programme

A Rolleston Prison inmate raped a woman while on release to work.

A prisoner has raped a woman while on a release to work programme, sparking a major internal probe by Corrections.

The 35-year-old has pleaded guilty at Christchurch District Court to the rape which happened in May last year.

Since the shocking incident, Corrections has "significantly strengthened" the rules around its Release to Work (RtW) programme.

The inmate, serving a two-year, eight-month sentence at Rolleston Prison for injuring with intent to injure, had a placement with a local employer from February 25 last year.

During his placements, a woman visited his unsupervised workplace to have sex with him.

But during one of the visits, they argued and the prisoner raped her in a car, according to Fairfax Media.

Ian Bourke, Corrections' regional commissioner for southern region, said the department was contacted by police about the allegations on May 6 last year.

"The offender was at his place of employment with a contracted employer at the time of his offending," Mr Bourke said.

"He has breached the trust of people who believed in him and his rehabilitation; including his employer and prison staff."

The prisoner was routinely checked at the work site, including a visit at the place of employment a fortnight before this event, Corrections said.

The victim of his previous offending had visited him at the prison, an inquiry found.
But Corrections was unaware that he was contacting and meeting with his victim outside these managed visits at the prison.

During the placements, visitors are not permitted by the RtW rules.

However, there were "various points of entry to this particular workplace", the inquiry found.

"Immediately after Corrections was made aware of the charges against this prisoner, RtW was stopped for this employer while a review was carried out," Mr Bourke said.

The RtW programme allows minimum security prisoners who meet strict eligibility criteria to engage in paid employment in the community, in order to help them gain employment on release.

After the offending was uncovered, all current work sites and employers were visited by RtW case managers to "reinforce expectations of the role of sponsor/employer and expectations" of the prisoner and their supervision.

"As a result, the rules around temporary release, of which RtW is a part, were significantly strengthened," Mr Bourke said.

"RtW prisoner suitability guidelines were reviewed and this has led to some offenders on the programme being returned to prison."

Since December last year further changes have been put in place regarding temporary release approvals.

All applications now go through a multi-disciplinary panel which consider the risks and/or benefits to the public, not just the prisoner, and all prisoners going outside the wire are required to wear GPS bracelets unless they are accompanied by Corrections staff.

Sponsors are now required to pick prisoners up and drop them back off at the prison.

The decision to grant a prisoner temporary release can only be made by the prison director with public safety being the most important consideration.

The operational review of the incident found that the prisoner met the eligibility as set out in Regulation 26 of the Corrections Act 2004, however, "more consideration should have been given to his community-based risk, the fact that he continued to deny his offending and his lack of motivation to address his offending".

During the period of his employment, staff met their obligations, the review found.

Work site checks were conducted and communication with the employer was satisfactory.

"This prisoner went to significant effort to hide the fact the victim was visiting him on the work site," Mr Bourke said.

"The local employer has worked closely with Corrections employment and rehabilitation staff over a number of years in helping train minimum security prisoners cleared for RtW so that on eventual release from prison they can more easily find work."