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If we get cut off from our whanau, and the places we call home, we lose a part of our whakapapa, our humanity.

Self-care units are primarily designed to help prepare inmates for their return to the community. The units provide an environment similar to what they will face on the outside. Unlike the structured environment of the mainstream prison, in these units women are encouraged to be self-reliant. They will have to budget, cook, clean up after themselves, and organise groceries. We all take these basic life skills for granted. But for many of these inmates, this will be the first time in their lives that anyone has taken the time to teach them.

My job doesn’t start when an offender enters one of my prisons, and end when he or she leaves. It starts in the homes of kids at risk, it starts in the schools when a kid becomes disruptive and skips class, it starts in the courts when a teenager appears before a judge on his first offence. And it continues when an offender is released from jail and returns to their family where there is a child waiting who doesn’t need to follow in dad’s foot-steps. It’s just common sense: if you want to stop crime, start early.

Speech to the Prison Fellowship of New Zealand conference, Matamata.

Speech to the Prison Fellowship of New Zealand conference, Matamata.

Kaumatua will get greater access to Maori in prison in a bid to reduce Maori re-offending.

The Sentencing and Parole Bills are a milestone for this coalition government.

For the first time in over a decade we are starting to get clarity in criminal justice legislation.

Speech to Te waka no nga hau e wha – Restorative Justice hui; Onehunga Community House, Auckland; Friday 23 November 2001; 11.00am.

Mihi

E nga rangatira me nga iwi,
Te iti, te rahi, te katoa
Tena koutou

INTRO

This is the first time I have addressed the psychological service staff as a group, although I have come across some of you individually in my role as Minister of Corrections.

Speech to the Salvation Army Court and Prison Conference
(Trentham
Wellington)

INTRO

I am honoured to speak to your conference today.

Opening address to the Schizophrenia Fellowship Conference
Novotel Tainui Hotel, Hamilton

It's a sad commentary on where we have come to, that the Minister of Corrections is here to open your conference.

When I talk to people at public meetings I compare these two statistics that I think will particularly interest you here tonight.

The average cost of imprisonment for each inmate per year is $52,738.

In the first few weeks of this government, National and Act were new to opposition.

They saw fit to accuse me of planning to let violent thugs out of prison with a cup of warm milk and a cuddle.

Shame on them.

Regional prison brings 250 new jobs

Two hundred and fifty new jobs will be created from the decision to make a site five kilometres south of Meremere the preferred site for a new South Auckland corrections facility for men.

One of the hallmarks of Corrections is that there aren’t too many stories of triumph.

It’s a part of Government where tragedies and tough breaks happen all the time.

It is possible to make the public safer by turning people away from a life of crime and reducing re-offending.

That is the main finding of a report released today by the Corrections Minister Matt Robson.

Address to the North Harbour Law Society
North Shore Rowing club
Northcote Rd extension, Takapuna.

1.30PM Friday, 18 May 2001

You have asked me to talk about the politics of penal reform.

Speech to the Taradale Rotary Club, Hawkes Bay, on 3 May 2001

Yesterday, I released a public discussion document entitled Better Corrections Law for New Zealand.

Howard League Annual General Meeting
Madras St, Christchurch

'Penal reform'.

Tthese are not the words on the lips of most New Zealanders as they mow their lawns at the weekend or head off to work on a Monday morning.

Howard League Annual General Meeting
Madras St, Christchurch

'Penal reform'.

Tthese are not the words on the lips of most New Zealanders as they mow their lawns at the weekend or head off to work on a Monday morning.

Kia ora tatau e tau nei ki roto i tenei huihuinga a tatou.

Tena ano koe e Napi. Huri noa I tenei whare tena tatau katoa.

Thank you for again inviting me to speak with you at your National Hui.

Speech notes for the launch of the Regional Prisons Programme's
Pacific Island Committee's communications programme

INTRODUCTION

Bula vinaka, Talofa lava, Kia orana, Malo e le lei, Malo ni, Fakaalofa atu

[Delivered by Alliance MP Kevin Campbell, 4pm]

It's a real pleasure to speak here today on the behalf of the Minister of Corrections Matt Robson.

[Delivered by Alliance MP Kevin Campbell, 4pm]

It's a real pleasure to speak here today on the behalf of the Minister of Corrections Matt Robson.

Youth units like this one at Hawkes Bay represent hope.

It is a springboard to change.

It has to be. Because the statistics are grim.

At present 90% of youth offenders re-offend within five years of their release.