12292 (2025). Hon Dr Duncan Webb to the Minister of Corrections

12292 (2025). Hon Dr Duncan Webb to the Minister of Corrections: In the last 12 months for which complete records exist, how many women, if any, (by number and percentage) who have been held in prison on remand were released without further detention in prison, rather than being sentenced to a period of imprisonment?

Hon Mark Mitchell: The decision to remand a person in custody, or sentence them to imprisonment, is made by the Courts, not Corrections. The length of time a person spends on remand prior to sentencing is determined by court proceedings, which relate to the functions of the Ministry of Justice, not Corrections. I refer the member to the attached table, which provides the number of people held at a women’s prison who were not immediately held in prison following their remand, over the last 12 months. I am advised that Corrections can only report on where a remand period was not immediately followed by a sentence of imprisonment, which will include some remand periods where the remand time was later credited to a sentence of imprisonment and may be released immediately on sentencing with time served.