National warns over open prison proposals

Low level sex offenders, thieves and drink drivers could be released into the "open prisons" being considered by the Government, National says.

Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor recently returned from Britain, the Netherlands and Finland, where he studied open prison systems which allow inmates to go home for one weekend a month and be paid for work carried out during sentences.

Mr O'Connor has said the Government will investigate if such a system could run in New Zealand and suggested it could cater for up to a third of prisoners (those sentenced to less than six months) reduce reoffending and ease pressure on the bulging prison population.

But National law and order spokesman Simon Power yesterday accused Mr O'Connor of failing to tell the public exactly what sort of prisoners would enter the open system.

He cited examples from newspaper court pages of offenders serving sentences of less than six months. They included:

* A taxi driver found guilty of indecent assault.

* A woman who stole more than $11,000 while caring for a sick woman.

* A man convicted of 72 fraud charges.

* A man convicted of assault and his sixth drink-drive charge.

* A man convicted on six charges of theft, assaulting police and cannabis possession.

"They are physical threats or a threat to the public's sense of safety and all deserve some sort of punitive sentence," Mr Power said.

But Mr O'Connor said National was distorting the truth.

"People considered in any way dangerous to the community would not fit into this category.

He said there was no concrete proposal at this stage and he wanted to encourage debate.

Mr Power has said the open prison proposal is a knee-jerk reaction to prison overcrowding and is at odds with the thrust of previous Corrections and Justice Ministers Paul Swain and Phil Goff who promoted a "tough on crime" approach.

But Mr O'Connor has said he is not proposing any change to sentences for serious offenders, who would continue to receive long sentences.

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark has called for the Government to sort out its existing prison rehabilitation schemes, before moving to any new prison regime.

Last week he highlighted Corrections Department data that showed that offenders attending some of its flagship programmes were more likely to reoffend than those who did not.

- NZPA