19815 (2026). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections

19815 (2026). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections: Has the Minister received any advice warning that current prison population growth could undermine rehabilitation, staff safety, or prison security?

Hon Mark Mitchell: I receive regular updates from my officials on a range of matters, including rehabilitation, staff safety, and prison security, including through briefings, aides memoire, cabinet papers, routine meetings and my weekly report. Some of these updates will provide advice or seek decisions needed to uphold prison security and staff safety, while managing the increasing prison population. Identifying each piece of advice that may fit, at least partly in scope of the members request, would require substantial collation and research. I am not prepared to direct officials to undertake this work for the purposes of responding to this question. However, I can confirm that the need to maintain effective operations and uphold security has informed decisions relating to funding requests in Budgets 2024 and 2025, as well as decisions to expand infrastructure, including the Christchurch Men’s Prison Redevelopment and the Accelerated Capacity Project at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison. As Minister, my priorities remain increasing prison capacity, improving staff safety, ensuring staffing levels remain proportional to the prison population, and reducing reoffending through effective rehabilitation.