A Moral and Fiscal Failure

Aotearoa New Zealand has the fifth-highest rate of incarceration in the OECD. Although 15% of Aotearoa’s general population are Māori, 50% of the prison population are Māori. At Auckland Women's Prison, 68% of the women are Māori, making them the most incarcerated group of indigenous women on earth. ‘A moral and fiscal failure,’ was the description used by conservative former National Party Finance Minister Bill English in 2011 to describe the prison system. Current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used the same term in 2018 and yet prisons are still here.

Inter-prison Transfers

Prisoners are moved around the prison system as they transition from remand to serving a sentence, to release. Once in the system, they can be transferred to programmes that they request or that Corrections deem will support their reintegration/rehabilitation.

Corrections NZ tries to ensure that prisoners are placed in locations where people who are incarcerated can still maintain contact with their whānau and tamariki. When people don't have contact with family there's an emotional toll, they are at higher risk of self-harm and less likely to engage with 'rehabilitation'.

The visualisation here covers the period 2 July 2018 and 22 July 2021. During that time there were over 27,000 transfers (the second diagram shows this complete picture). The big blocky spikes show the majority of transfers are from Mt Eden which is where most people accused of crimes are held on remand in Aotearoa.

The majority of prison transfers (8835 in this period) are categorised as "Population Management". That can be to separate different categories of prisoners but it's also to manage over-population. Aotearoa's prison system is stretched and under-resourced so although there is a commitment to supporting people to maintain contact with whanau limited resources take precedence. Moving someone from Auckland Women's on the North Island to Christchurch Women's on the South means they have no chance to maintain regular contact.

With a Corrections Officer testing positive for Covid on the 29th August at Springhill I looked at the transfers during the last Alert Level 4 period 26 March 2020 - 28 April 2020. 370 prisoners were transferred across the country in that period (the first diagram). A little more than 60 were released but 189 as part of population management. Corrections have strict Covid management procedures but over-population puts extra pressure on this system.