Address at Opening of Springhill Corrections Facility, Waikato

This is the fourth and the last of the new prisons commissioned by the Government as part of this project. Overall the project has added an additional 1,600 much-needed beds to the prison system.

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Today marks both an end and a beginning.

It's the end of the construction and commissioning phase for Spring Hill Corrections Facility, and I thank all those who have worked so hard to plan for, design, and build the prison.

The opening of this facility also marks the final stage of the Regional Prisons Development Project. This is the fourth and the last of the new prisons commissioned by the Government as part of this project. Overall the project has added an additional 1,600 much-needed beds to the prison system to accommodate a growing prison population.

So today's ceremony also marks the beginning of the next phase in the prison's journey. The first inmates will enter Spring Hill Corrections Facility in November.

Our Government has invested $890 million in the four new prisons. That's the price of ensuring that those to whom our courts award custodial sentences are appropriately detained.

We have worked hard to meet the challenge of accommodating rising prison numbers, and at the same time develop a more modern and effective corrections system.

Since 1999, we have delivered on the commitment we made to provide for tougher penalties for the worst offenders and make public safety the paramount consideration. Bail, sentencing, l and parole laws have all been toughened, and the police are solving more criminal cases. All of that has resulted in more prisoners being detained for longer.

We will continue to address crime with policies aimed at reducing its incidence, working to rehabilitate prisoners to reduce recidivism, and targeting repeat offenders and hardened criminals and their activity.

Our policies overall are having an impact on the fight against crime. Last year's recorded crime rate was the lowest in over twenty years.

Around our prisons, there have been substantial improvements made to security. Prison escapes have fallen by 78 per cent in the past ten years. There have been significant declines in the numbers of serious prisoner assaults on staff and of serious prisoner assaults on other prisoners.

As well, the amount of contraband getting into prisons is dropping. That is due to a number of factors, such as doubling the number of drug-dog teams since 2004, increasing surveillance at gates and checkpoints, and having a single point of entry in two-thirds of our prisons

These strategies are showing results - currently around thirteen per cent of random prisoner drug tests are returning positive. That is down from 34 per cent in 1998.

Our attention has now turned to how to get the lower crime rate reflected in lower prison numbers.

It gives one no satisfaction to note that our country has the fifth highest imprisonment rate in the OECD. Our rates are higher than those of the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia - nations we like to compare ourselves with.

I believe our goal must be to get the imprisonment rate back to levels more consistent with those countries we consider to be our peers.

Many of our longer term policies should over time contribute to lower imprisonment rates. For example, we should in time see a positive impact from the greatly reduced unemployment rates, from more support for families, and from the wide range of early intervention programmes already put in place.

An important part of our strategy to reduce re-offending was the package of Effective Interventions initiatives announced in July last year. The changes to the law which that entailed were made in the Criminal Justice Reform Bill.

These initiatives are aimed directly at decreasing re-offending rates, lowering New Zealand's high rate of imprisonment, and getting better outcomes overall from our criminal justice system.

One of the central planks of the Effective Interventions package was a revamp of the sentencing system.

A Sentencing Council is being established to promulgate guidelines to help judges determine appropriate sentences for the range of crimes, including those at the lower end of offending.

There will also be changes to the way parole is used, so that prisoners will be required to serve at least two thirds of their sentence before being eligible for parole.

These changes will make the system more transparent, and will result in best practice through more consistent sentencing. The changes proposed will also provide more certainty for the Department of Corrections as it works to manage prisoner numbers, thus relieving pressure on our prison system.

The Effective Interventions Package also introduces a new tier of community sentences. Today's opening is timely, because next week the new sentences which the legislation provides for will be available to the judiciary for the first time.

From next Monday Home Detention as a stand-alone sentence, Community Detention, and Intensive Supervision will all be available as sentencing options, in addition to the existing sentence of Supervision and Community Work.

Research shows that community sentences are an effective alternative to short term prison sentences. They enable offenders to retain their jobs; maintain supportive relationships in the community; undertake study and rehabilitative courses, including for drug and alcohol treatment; and continue to support their families.

Of course the safety of the community must always be paramount, and offenders who should be given custodial sentences will be sent to facilities such as Spring Hill. The Government considers, however, that community sentences are options which can help steer lower risk offenders away from a life in prison.

The Effective Interventions Package is also providing funding for two additional drug and alcohol treatment units.

There is a strong correlation between drug and alcohol abuse and offending. Between fifty and sixty per cent of offenders are affected by drugs and/or alcohol at the time of their offending. Thus these extra treatment units should help reduce offending over time.

Two further general purpose special treatment units are also being established, to provide intensive rehabilitation programmes for an additional one hundred high risk prisoners.

This new facility includes both a drug and alcohol treatment unit and a special treatment unit.

Reducing the imprisonment rate is not something the Government can achieve on its own. Attaining that goal requires action from a wide range of people across society.

Early intervention has been shown to work both in New Zealand and overseas. It is the best way of achieving long-term reductions in crime and preventing people from ending up in prison, through helping to build stronger, healthier families and communities.

For people in prison, providing a progressive series of steps through treatment, skills training, work experience - and even gaining qualifications as a means of building a productive life beyond prison - is a critical factor in reducing re-offending and thereby the overall prison population.

Opening Spring Hill Corrections Facility means that prisoners from the Greater Auckland region can serve their sentence closer to their home community. That is a very important aspect of their rehabilitation.

Until now, the shortage of prison beds in this part of the country has meant sending prisoners to other prisons often far away from their family and community support networks. These prisoners have had to prepare for release and return to their community from another part of New Zealand, which does not make for smooth transitions.

Spring Hill Corrections Facility's purpose is to detain people whom society has deemed should be separated from the community, but also to help them move onto a more constructive path.

Thus the prison has been designed to address the rehabilitation needs of prisoners and to create an environment where motivated prisoners can gain the help they need to improve their lives. But for this to succeed, the prisoners need to want to rehabilitate themselves. They need to want to change, and to work at that.

Supported by staff, but encouraged to be self-reliant, prisoners can make their way through the system to emerge as people with more skills to cope beyond the prison, to contribute to their communities, and to not offend again.

Prisoners will attend programmes designed to develop skills in areas from parenting to budgeting, and will participate in programmes dealing with alcohol and drug problems and violence prevention where appropriate. They can complete programmes which confront their offending behaviour, and gain the tools which help them to avoid re-offending.

Prisoners housed here will generally be near the end of their sentence. They will be released back into our communities, so we need to do all we can to make them contributing members of society. Spring Hill Corrections Facility will help this to become a reality.

There is a very special group of people here today whom I would like to acknowledge for the work they will be doing at Spring Hill Corrections Facility to reduce re-offending.

They are Ngati Naho Kaitiaki Society, the facility's kaitiaki, or site guardians.

Maori make up less than fifteen per cent of New Zealand's total population, but account for close to half of the prison muster. If solutions to the problem of the rising prison population are to work, they have to work for Maori.

Ngati Naho representatives have already been working in the development of this facility, and their involvement has been vital.

The Government's key goal for criminal justice is to protect our communities, and further reduce crime.

The more successfully we can reintegrate prisoners, the more successful we will be at reducing re-offending.

Let's step up to the challenge we've set. I now declare Spring Hill Corrections Facility officially open.