KEY POINTS:
The Government department in charge of the country's prison service needs an overhaul to reclaim public confidence, says National Party Corrections spokesman Simon Power.
Corrections has been in the spotlight in recent weeks after the release of a damning report into the death of North Shore teenager Liam Ashley.
Despite the report highlighting several systemic faults which contributed to Liam being battered to death in the back of a prisoner transport van, neither Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor nor the ministry's chief executive, Barry Matthews, offered to resign.
However, recently released research commissioned by Corrections this year shows the department suffered from a negative public image even before the Liam Ashley case, with recent controversies including the department buying computer games for prisoners and cost overruns in the building of new prisons.
The Ashley family have called Corrections "incompetent through and through".
The Research New Zealand survey questioned 751 people in March and April, finding Corrections had a low public profile, many people had an incorrect or confused idea of what it did and that, overall, it had a relatively low level of public trust and confidence.
Criticism of the department included sentences not being tough enough - something Corrections has no control over - being "too soft" on prisoners, frequently suffering from bad publicity, prisons being over-filled and ineffective rehabilitation programmes.
Mr Power said: "If this was people's view of the Department of Corrections before the tragic case of Liam Ashley, one can only imagine what they are thinking now."
Corrections needed an overhaul to reassure the public it could be trusted to keep prisoners secure.
"A long litany of blunders, incompetence and tragedy has made this a year many would prefer to forget. All through the year, when Damien O'Connor has been asked if he had confidence in his department, he routinely answered 'Yes, but there is always room for improvement'. That was probably the one thing he was right about in 2006."
However, Mr Matthews said the department and its work were not well understood, and the ministry needed to find more effective ways to increase public awareness and understanding of its work.
Corrections had many things to be proud of, he said, including increased interception of contraband entering prisons, a reduction in the number of positive random drug tests, a declining number of escapes over the last 10 years and increased prisoner employment.
