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A new report has found more failings on the part of the Corrections Department and the way it manages offenders on parole.
It details serious failings in the management of parole, in nearly every single case it investigated.
The Auditor General's Office has looked at how the department handled 100 case files including 52 offenders regarded as high risk. Click here to read the full report .
It has found in most cases the Department did not follow one or more of its own sentence management requirements and has identified several cases where Corrections was not managing offenders adequately.
Auditor General Kevin Brady is expressing concern that the cumulative effect is undermining the Corrections Department's ability to protect the public.
The report makes 20 recommendations to Corrections, mostly
urging them to follow their own parole rules. These include:
-The proposed accommodation of offenders not being problematic for
victims;
- Probation officers regularly visiting offenders in their
homes;
- Senior staff overseeing how probation officers manage high-risk
offenders;
- Enforcement action being consistent and prompt; and
- Victims being notified promptly about certain enforcement actions
relating to an offender's parole.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins says the report is alarming.
"I am deeply disappointed and concerned by the finding of the report," she says. "I support all of the recommendations of the Auditor-General and I am treating the findings of this report extremely seriously."
In response to the report, the Department of Corrections says there are simply not enough staff or enough funding to do its job.
It also says that even if staff started training now, the problem would not be fixed till 2011.
The Minister says there will be better monitoring under her
watch.
"I have today asked the state services commission to establish who
is accountable for serious failings identified by the Auditor
General, and what can be done to restore public confidence," she
says.
That report is due in 10 days and it will be decided then if heads will roll.
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