Департамент исправительных учреждений Новой Зеландии: история и современность.

The Department of Corrections (Māori: Ara Poutama Aotearoa) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with managing the New Zealand corrections system. This includes the operations of the 18 prisons in New Zealand and services run by Probation. Corrections' role and functions were defined and clarified with the passing of the Corrections Act 2004. In early 2006, Corrections officially adopted the Māori name Ara Poutama Aotearoa.

Prior to 1995 the country's prisons, probation system and the courts were all managed by the Department of Justice. The Department of Corrections was formed in 1995, by the Department of Justice (Restructuring) Act 1995. This new act gave management of prisoners, parolees and offenders on probation to a new Department of Corrections while leaving administration of the court system and fines collection with the Ministry of Justice. The intention was to enable the new department to improve public safety and assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders. In 2012, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Corrections Minister Pita Sharples announced the government would spend $65 million over the next four years, with the goal of reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2017.

Since it was established, the department has had to cope with a dramatic growth in the prison population. Between 1997 and 2011 the number of inmates increased by 70% and, at 201 prisoners per 100,000 of population (in 2018), New Zealand has one of the higher rates of imprisonment in the Western world. The Fifth Labour Government built four prisons – at Ngawha (Northern Region) housing 420 prisoners, Springhill (north of Huntly) housing 840, Auckland Women's' holding 330 and Milton (Otago) holding 425 – at a cost of $890 million. When National came to power in 2008, the department built a new 1,000 bed prison at Mt Eden for $218 million in a public private partnership and gave the contract to Serco. The department's growth has been such that in July 2010, Finance Minister Bill English expressed concerns that government spending was "led by a rapidly expanding prison system which would soon make Corrections the government's biggest department". As at December 2011, New Zealand had 20 prisons and the department employed over 8,000 staff. The department's operating budget is over $1 billion a year. Despite English's concerns about the growing cost, in 2011 the government approved the building of a new 960 bed prison at Wiri estimated to cost nearly $400 million. Later that year justice sector forecasts showed a drop in the projected prison forecast for the first time. Charles Chauvel, Labour Party spokesperson for justice, and the Public Service Association both questioned the need for a new prison when there were 1,200 empty beds in the prison system. In March 2012, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley announced that the new prison would enable older prisons such as Mt Crawford in Wellington and the New Plymouth prison to be closed. Older units at Arohata, Rolleston, Tongariro/Rangipo and Waikeria prisons will also be shut down. In 2018, the Labour Government announced a plan to reduce the prison population by 30% over 15 years. As at 30 September 2019, there were 10,040 people in prison in New Zealand. Since then, the prison population has dropped more than 25 per cent, from a peak of 10,820 to 7677 in March 2022.

The prison population is very fluid and altogether about 20,000 people spend time in prison each year, the vast majority on remand. Nearly 75% of those given a prison sentence are sentenced to two years or less, and all these are automatically released halfway through their sentence. As 30 September 2019, 93% percent of inmates were male. 51.9% of prisoners were Māori, compared with about 16% of New Zealand's resident population. In 2001 the department estimated that a lifetime of offending by one person costs victims and taxpayers $3 million.

In 2000, a rehabilitation approach based on enhanced computerised access to information about offenders was tried. The new chief executive of the department, Mark Byers, introduced a $40 million scheme designed to reduce reoffending called Integrated Offender Management System (IOMS). At the time it was described as "the biggest single initiative the department has undertaken to reduce reoffending". Seven years later, Greg Newbold said the scheme was an expensive failure and described it as "another wreck on the scrapheap of abandoned fads of criminal rehabilitation." Research suggests that nearly 90% of offenders were alcohol or drug affected in the period leading up to their offence. In 2004 an Ombudsman's investigation into the treatment of prisoners found that only 174 inmates a year were able to receive substance abuse treatment. Since then successive governments have responded by establishing additional Drug Treatment Units (DTU's) within the prison system. By 2011, this increased the number of prisoners able to attend drug treatment to 1,000 a year. This represents only 5% of the more than 20,000 people who spend time in prison each year. In 2012 the government announced that an extra $65 million would be put into rehabilitation, in an effort to reduce re offending by 25% within five years. As part of the package, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley indicated the 14,000 offenders who spend time in prison on remand each year would become eligible for rehabilitation for the first time. On 22 November 2019, it was reported that the Department of Corrections had adopted a policy of referring to prisoners as "men in our care" and "clients." Staff were also instructed to address prisoners by their first names instead of surnames. The Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis confirmed that this was part of the Sixth Labour Government's Hōkai Rangi strategy to address the high rate of Māori reoffending and imprisonment by "humanising" prisoners. The government's decision was criticised by Corrections staff and the Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges as "political correctness" and "being soft on crime."

The use of private prisons has also been tried, stopped and reintroduced. New Zealand's first privately run prison, the Auckland Central Remand Prison, also known as Mt. Eden Prison, opened under contract to Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) in 2000. In 2004, the Labour government, opposed to privatisation, amended the law to prohibit the extension of private prison contracts. A year later, the 5 year contract with ACM was not renewed. In 2010, the National government again introduced private prisons and international conglomerate Serco was awarded the contract to run the Mt Eden Prison. On 16 July 2015, footage of "fight clubs" within the prison emerged online and was reported by TVNZ. Serco was heavily criticised for not investigating until after the footage was screened. On 24 July 2015, Serco's contract to run the Mount Eden prison was revoked due to numerous scandals and operation was given back to the New Zealand Department of Corrections. Serco was ordered to pay $8 million to the New Zealand government as a result of problems at Mount Eden Prison while it was under Serco's management. Serco has also been given the contract to build and manage a new 960 bed prison at Wiri. The contract with Serco provides stiff financial penalties if its rehabilitation programmes fail to reduce reoffending by 10% more than the Corrections Department programmes. The Auckland South Corrections Facility was opened on 8 May 2015. The contract to operate the prison ends in 2040.

The New Zealand prison population experience higher mental health and substance abuse issues than the general population. For example, in 2015, about 90% of prisoners had been diagnosed with a mental health or substance abuse disorder during their lifetime. Female prisoners were more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health or substance abuse disorder than their male counterparts. All prisoners were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health or substance abuse disorder than the general population within the last 12 months. 87% of the prison population had been diagnosed with at least one substance abuse disorder, including alcohol abuse and drug dependence. Common mental health diagnoses within the prison population included mood disorders (32%), personality disorders (about 33%), and comorbidity (42%). Prisoners were four times more likely to attempt suicide and twice as likely to experience suicidal ideation than the general population. All prisoners are screened for mental health and substance abuse disorders; those who meet specific criteria have options for treatment and intervention that can help with rehabilitation.

In April 2015, a 44 year old inmate, Benton Parata, died in Christchurch Men's Prison after being bashed by three other prisoners. An expert on gangs in New Zealand, Dr Jarrod Gilbert, said revenge attacks could "snowball" out of control while the prison officers' union said assaults in New Zealand prisons already occurred almost daily and it was only "good luck" there weren't more deaths.

In March 2009 analysis of the previous 60 months, showed that 70% of prisoners reoffend within two years of being released from prison and 52% return to prison within five years (some of them more than once). For teenage prisoners, the recidivism rate (return to prison) is 71%. The government estimated that if it reached its reduced reoffending target of 25%, there would be 600 fewer people in prison by 2017. In 2014, prison numbers went up (to 8,700) rather than down, due to more offenders being held on remand.