Budget 2010: Halfway homes aim to cut cost of crime

The Maori Party has secured $19.8 million over four years in government funding for reintegration halfway houses for Maori offenders.

By next year, two 16-bed units - known as Whare Oranga Ake - will be ready to house Maori inmates for a nine-month stay to be slowly integrated back into the community.

The whare will be reviewed in 2012, after which the capacity of each unit will be doubled to 32 beds.

On average the whare will have 42 residents a year.

One will be in Auckland, the other in Hawkes Bay.

It will be for prisoners who have come to the end of their sentence who will benefit from a slow reintegration into the community.

"Currently, over half of Maori prisoners reoffend within four years of release," said Pita Sharples, Maori Party co-leader and Associate Corrections Minister.

"Whare Oranga Ake will help reduce the growth in numbers of prisoners and contribute savings, not just in Corrections, but in the wider social costs of crime and punishment."

The focus of the whare will be secure, suitable accommodation and jobs for the residents, while improving family and wider social relationships.

Therapeutic interventions and drug treatment are also expected to be available in the units or the wider community.

The project is expected to have a strong cultural element and be popular with Maori, but is not exclusive to Maori.

"Research shows that programmes delivered in a Tikanga Maori environment are just as effective for non-Maori offenders as they are for Maori," Dr Sharples said.

"In the longer term, I expect Whare Oranga Ake to show measurable reductions in rates of reimprisonment."

The justice system already uses Maori culture to help reduce re-offending. The youth justice system has three Rangatahi courts, which allow family group conferences for young Maori offenders to take place on a marae.

The conferences have a strong cultural element and have had anecdotal success in reducing reoffending.

More Rangatahi courts are being rolled out across the country.