Tag: Rehabilitation

Misinformation leads to colossal waste of taxpayers’ money

Rehabilitation in prison: numbers attending drops by 75%, while the cost triples

In 2017, 10,400 offenders attended a rehabilitation programme offered by the Corrections Department (see chart below.) This includes offenders in prison plus offenders on community sentences. The cost to the taxpayer that year was $180 million. That’s $17,307 per offender. In 2023, 5,601 offenders attended rehabilitation at a cost of $346 million. That’s $61,774 per offender.

In other words, between 2017 and 2023, the number of offenders attending rehabilitation has halved while the cost per offender has more than trebled.

Number of offenders attending rehabilitation programs each year (and the cost)

Year Number of prisonersNumber of offenders in the communityCost (Millions) from Annual Reports
20177,2003,200 (p.98)$180.8 (p.99)
20186,7662,798 (p.94)$215.7 (p.98)
20194,8064,094 (p. 52)$243.1 (p.87)
20203,7383,199 (p.62)$266.3 (p. 99)
20213,6874,064 (p. 72)$296.8 (p.99)
20222,0862,271 (p. 70)$322.2 (p.113)
20232,6312,970 (p.79)$346.5 (p.198)
2024Not publishedNot published$376.1 (p.182)

The number of prisoners (excluding community based offenders) attending rehabilitation programs has dropped by an even greater margin – to one quarter of the number attending in 2016. See chart below (Corrections figures published by NZ Herald.)

Corrections rehabilitation programs almost totally ineffective

Corrections Minister, Mark Mitchell says Corrections do an outstanding job – and allocated an extra $1.9 billion.

Making matters worse, these programmes have become increasingly ineffective. Every year, Corrections publishes a report describing the extent to which each of its rehabilitation programs reduce reoffending – based on results in the first 12 months after participating prisoners are released. 

In 2017, the Department’s Annual Report listed 13 different prison-based interventions. The average reduction in reoffending across all 13 programmes was only 3.9%. The best performing programme (for Violent Offending) reduced reoffending by 10.4% in the following 12 months. However, very few inmates are referred to this program.

The Annual Report for 2024, shows that Corrections offered only eight programmes in prison. The average reduction in reoffending almost halved to 2.3%. Three of those programs target offenders with addictions – in Drug Treatment Programs (DTP). Rather than reducing reoffending, in 2024 the DTP actually led to an increase (Annual Report, p. 196).

Misinformation published by the Corrections Department

Corrections has a history of publishing grossly exaggerated statements about the effectiveness of its rehabilitation programs in order to persuade whichever Government is in power at the time to continue funding them. For example:

  • “New Zealand remains the only country in the world that routinely measures and reports on the outcomes of the full suite of its rehabilitative interventions. The process has major benefits in enabling us to direct, and re-direct, resources to where we get best effects, to improve effectiveness, and to avoid wasted effort.” Dr Peter Johnston Director Analysis and Research, Department of Corrections.  The New Zealand Corrections Journal, July 2017.

None of these statements published by the Corrections Department are true.

Rehabilitation in the AODTC

The only intervention available in New Zealand which makes a significant difference is the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court (AODTC). Not only does it reduce reoffending, it even keeps high risk offenders out of prison, saving millions in court, police, prison and health costs.

AODTC Judge Lisa Tremewan

There are two such courts in Auckland and one in Hamilton.  Between 2012 and 2018, the AODTC was evaluated more extensively than any other justice related intervention in New Zealand history. The Ministry of Justice found it reduced reoffending of graduates by 86% more than a matched group of offenders.  This result is 86 times better than drug treatment in prison in 2024. Those are the facts.

Andrew Little – misled by the MOJ about the true effectiveness of the AODTC

Andrew Little was a member of Parliament when these evaluations were being conducted. In 2017, he became Minister of Justice and was so impressed with the early results, he said drug courts would be “rolled out across New Zealand in 2018”.  Each court costs about $3 million a year to operate. But since the drug court was established in Hamilton, no funding has been made available to roll them out anywhere else. Why? Because the Ministry of Justice misled Andrew Little and Cabinet about the remarkable effectiveness of the AODTC, and has consistently lied to Cabinet about the benefits of rehabilitation in prison.

14,000 prisoners on remand excluded from rehabilitation

More than 20,000 people spend time in New Zealand prisons every year and most are excluded from rehabilitation programmes. Being illiterate is one of the excluding criteria. Those on short sentences are also excluded. However, the largest cohort of prisoners prevented from attending are those on remand awaiting trial or sentencing. 14,000 New Zealanders end up in this situation every year – some for just a few weeks, others for years.

British research on remand prisoners:  There are very good reasons to start rehabilitation while offenders are on remand. British research has found that remand prisoners tend to experience very high levels of social deprivation. They are five times more likely than sentenced prisoners to have lived in a hostel prior to imprisonment and are less likely to have had a job. They also have higher levels of drug dependency.

In 2005, Britain’s Home Affairs Committee produced a report on rehabilitation issues and recommended that:

“Remand prisoners should undergo a needs assessment on reception to prison, including mandatory drug testing, and the Prison Service should develop a separate prison regime tailored to meet their specific needs. This regime should include a short induction programme, education and work opportunities and drug and alcohol treatment programmes, with arrangements in place for continuation of treatment and programmes in the community…

“Time in prison can offer a window of opportunity to start to change. These measures are especially relevant to remand and short-term prisoners, because they are more likely to be in prison for drug-motivated crimes, and treatment is more urgent because they will be released sooner”.

New Zealand research: There is little research in New Zealand on the level of drug abuse and social exclusion experienced by prisoners on remand. But the thrust of the argument made by the British Home Affairs Committee applies equally well in New Zealand. Since 80% of crime is committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the average remand prisoner is highly likely to have problems with substance abuse. They often have unstable accommodation and are sometimes remanded in prison simply because they have nowhere to live.

We even build prisons especially for them. Earlier this year, the Corrections Department spent $218 million on a brand new prison in Mt Eden with nearly 1,000 beds – just to accommodate remand prisoners in Auckland. Although it houses up to 1,000 prisoners at a time, many more will spend time there in the course of a year. Not one of them will be allowed to attend a rehabilitation programme.