Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

dominance of custody is also asserted in proposed new legislation
such as the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill 2010 that would make
imprisonment a penalty for non-payment of fines.
Court practices in which offenders who breach community sentences
are subsequently up-tariffed and sentenced to periods of imprisonment.
The increase in the prison population has been generally linked to upwards
trends in some types of crimes , the denial of bail, the net-widening of
offences that may result in custody, the use of longer sentences, the use of
prison to underpin the completion of community sentences and the „tightening
of parole release decisions‟ (Department of Corrections, 2008:11).
3.2 The Institutional Response
As might be expected, these decisions have had a profound effect on the
prison system. There have been recent periods in which Corrections have
operated under significant stress. Information provided as part of New
Zealand‟s report to the UN Committee Against Torture (Ministry of Justice,
2009b) illustrates that, in the week ending 1 February 2009:
Two prisons (Manawatu and New Plymouth) operated at 100%
capacity;
Six prisons (Auckland Central Remand, Auckland, Christchurch,
Invercargill, Otago and Wanganui) operated at over 90% capacity;
Six prisons (Mt Eden, Northland, Rimutaka, Rolleston, Waikeria and
Auckland Women‟s) operated at over 80% capacity;
Overall, the prisons across New Zealand were 85% full, and they
housed 8,069 prisoners.
On current forecasts, the growth in the prison population, together with the
need to replace around 1,700 obselete beds, will require an additional 2,500
beds over the next nine years (Collins, 2010). More restrictive approaches to
bail or parole, a widening of offences that become liable to imprisonment, or
the application of longer sentences, would increase these estimates. Given
this potential future, some commentators including Chief Justice Sian Elias
have called for the consideration of alternative approaches – including the use
of early release amnesties or the relaxation of bail and parole measures (Dye,
2009).
Government however, has pursued a different track and a range of practices
have been operationalised to meet demand, such as:
The development of new prisons and units: Over the last five years,
four new prisons (at a cost of around $1bn) have opened to add a
further 2,400 beds to the system. Mt Eden prison and the Auckland
Central Remand Prison have been substantially extended.. A
controversial container unit that accommodates 60 low-security
prisoners opened, in June 2010, at Rimutaka Prison. A new prison is
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