62257 (2024). Tamatha Paul to the Minister of Corrections

62257 (2024). Tamatha Paul to the Minister of Corrections: What advice, if any, has the Minister received in relation to New Zealand's growing prison population by title and date?

Hon Mark Mitchell: Corrections provides me with a range of advice relating to the prison population via briefings and aides memoire, my weekly report and through regular meetings with officials. Much of that advice relates to, or references, fluctuations and/or recent increases to the prison population. To assess all advice I have received in order to provide a list of documents in scope of the member’s question would amount to substantial collation and manual analysis, which I am not prepared to ask for the purposes of this response. However, I understand that much of the relevant information I have received in recent months, either via briefings and aides memoires or my weekly report, will have already been released to the member through responses to her Official Information Act requests to my office. The member may also wish to note that the Ministry of Justice prepares and publicly releases Justice Sector Projections on behalf of the justice sector, which are important for strategic planning within the sector. Similarly, Corrections publicly releases a range of prison population statistics on its website each quarter.