48779 (2025). Hon Dr Duncan Webb to the Minister of Corrections

48779 (2025). Hon Dr Duncan Webb to the Minister of Corrections: On how many occassions (if any) in the past 12 months has a person sentenced to imprisonment served more than the amount of time prescribed as the maximum period of detention in a Police Jail under s 34 of the Corrections Act?

Hon Mark Mitchell: I am advised that prisoners can be held in police jails for a number of reasons, such as those outlined in sections 34 - 36 of the Corrections Act 2004. I am further advised that Corrections receives data relating to police jail cells from the New Zealand Police. I am advised that this information does not distinguish between sentenced and remand prisoners, and to determine this information would involve manual analysis and significant resource which I am not prepared to ask of my officials for the purposes of this response. I am further advised that, over the last 12 months, no prisoner has been held in a police jail for more than seven days other than those held for judicial purposes in accordance with section 65(3) of the Corrections Act 2004.