$81.3 million for prison safety and rehab upgrades

  • Anne Tolley
Corrections

Corrections Minister Anne Tolley says $81.3 million is being invested in upgrading five prisons to improve security and safety, and to provide better facilities for prisoner rehabilitation and training.

Major infrastructure work will begin soon at Invercargill, Whanganui and Tongariro Prisons, while development is already underway at Waikeria and Rolleston Prisons.

This follows the announcement that the maximum security wing at Auckland Prison is to be completely rebuilt, at a cost of over $200 million, to provide a secure and modern facility which will contain a mental health unit and deliver improved rehabilitation opportunities.

“Our prisons need to be fit for purpose to deliver the results expected by the public,” says Mrs Tolley.

“We are doing everything we can to keep the public and prison staff safe, while at the same time doing more than ever before to educate and rehabilitate prisoners so they don’t create more victims of crime.

“Prisoners are quite rightly being punished for their crimes, but the vast majority are released back into our communities.

“If we can provide opportunities to help them turn their lives around to stop them from reoffending, we can make communities safer and prevent the taxpayer having to foot the $100,000 a year it costs to keep a prisoner locked up.

“The major upgrades at these five prisons will make a valuable contribution to our target of reducing reoffending by 25 per cent by 2017. Corrections is already over 11 per cent of the way to achieving that goal, but a lot of hard work lies ahead as we aim to have 18,500 fewer victims of crime each year.” 

Details and cost of the upgrades:

Invercargill Prison - $17.9 million. Work will begin in early 2014 and end in December 2016 for:

  • A new trade training facility for high security prisoners
  • A rehabilitation programme room for high security prisoners
  • Refurbishment of exercise yards to increase security and improve prisoner management
  • Additional contraband search facilities
  • Construction of a new health and at-risk unit
  • New Audio Visual Link (AVL) facility to minimise prisoner transport and court appearances
  • Seismic strengthening

Tongariro/Rangipo Prison - $26 million. Work to begin in 2014 and be completed by mid-2016 on:

  • A new perimeter fence and entry buildings, with enhanced security and an area for a prisoner job club.
  • A new receiving office, prisoner transit station and health triage area.
  • A new trade training facility, to include farm training classrooms and livestock sheds

Whanganui Prison - $22 million. Building work will start in early 2014, and is scheduled to be completed by June 2015, on:

  • New, secure staff facilities
  • Two new rehabilitation rooms for remand prisoners
  • Redeveloped rooms to improve access to rehabilitation programmes
  • Cell and seismic strengthening
  • Additional exercise yards with increased security

Waikeria Prison - $8 million. Work is already underway and due to be completed by 2014 on:

  • A new perimeter control point to improve security
  • A new, secure area in the youth unit to manage disruptive offenders
  • An increase in the number of AVL booths
  • Infrastructure investments in upgrades to water filtration and the farm dairy effluent ponds 

Rolleston Prison - $7.4 million. Work is underway and set to be completed by the end of the year on:

  • A dedicated unit for drug testing
  • A new control point to increase security at the prison entrance
  • New facilities for a prisoner job club, where specialist advisors and prospective employers can meet offenders who are nearing release
  • Two new construction yards to refurbish damaged HNZ houses

All of the costs will be met from baseline funding.