September 19, 2023
Prisoner housing in budget plan
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the department has been dealing with a lack of housing for released prisoners.
Research by the University of Auckland school of social science identified a lack of stable housing being a major factor in people ending up back in prison.
Mr Davis says he recognised the problem when he became minister in 2017, and in his first budget got $56 million over four years which provided over 300 beds in various types of houses for released prisoners.
“Now there needs to be more housing and to be honest, people who leave prison should be treated like Joe Citizen, Joe public, and they should be entitled to everything, their needs should be as important as anyone else’s. That’s one of the issues, it’s just those perceptions about people who have been released from prison, that they’re Corrections problems still when the reality is they are members of the community like anyone else and should be treated so,” he says.
Mr Davis says Corrections also has schemes to link inmates with employers before they leave prison, and it works with whānau to improve the home situation.