A new $98 million programme to tackle Māori reoffending rates and to attempt to reduce New Zealand's prison population has been announced by the Government.
Māori Pathway, which is being rolled out at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison and Northland Region Corrections Facility, will initially focus on Māori men under 30 serving sentences between two and five years.
It aims to give them an experience of kaupapa Māori and whānau-centred approach from pre-sentence to going back into the community.
The Corrections Minister launched the programme in Northland today.
It will also have Māori trauma and mental health support, expanded rehabilitation services, housing transition support, employment services and increase whānau, hapū and iwi engagement.
It was announced today as part of a pre-Budget policy rollout.
Māori men under 30 serving sentences between two and five years have the highest rates of re-offending and re-imprisonment.
However, the pathway will be available for all prisoners.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said New Zealand's prison system does not "work for the majority of Māori".
"This is a new pathway for people in prison and their whānau to walk together. This is a system change and a culture change for our prison," he said.
"It’s about reducing reoffending so there are fewer victims of crime, building closer partnerships with Māori, and enabling us to keep delivering on our target to reduce the prison population by 30 per cent."
"For over 100 years Corrections has been running prisons the same way, and we’ve been getting the same results," Mr Davis said.
"We know Māori are the most incarcerated people in the country and so by creating a Māori pathway, from the time someone enters prison until well after they’ve left prison… it’s going to be a big change, it’s going to be something different that’s never been done before."
National's Corrections spokesperson David Bennett said his party recognise Māori are over represented in prison, "but we believe in the fundamental principle that the Corrections system should serve all equally".
"We need a system that works for all, teaching skills and providing rehabilitation, that acknowledges cultural and personal backgrounds, not an expensive and divisive system that Kelvin Davis has dreamt up."
Māori Pathway will be designed and implemented by Corrections, Te Puni Kōkiri [Ministry of Māori Development], and the Ministry for Social Development, with hapū and iwi.
The initiative intends to have "effective interventions and services" to be delivered in high security, rather than waiting until the prisoner is in low security can access rehabilitative services.
Māori make up 62 per cent of New Zealand's high security prison population, with 350 of the 623 inmates at Northland Region Corrections Facility and 457 of the 668 images at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison Māori.
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