Office by day, cell by night for inmates

Prison inmates are driving themselves to jobs in taxpayer-owned cars and working in offices without their colleagues knowing they spend their nights in cells, a Herald on Sunday investigation has discovered.

A convicted paedophile had access to children after the Department of Corrections let him out of prison during the day to go to work.

A second inmate was given a department van so he could drive himself to work when released during the day.

The two are among 17 inmates in the Department of Corrections "return to work" scheme but last night their work releases were described as stark examples of flaws in a troubled prison system.

The Herald on Sunday has spent five months drawing a series of grudging admissions of failure from Corrections.

In the case of the paedophile, who the Sensible Sentencing Trust says worked in a Hastings factory frequented by workers' children, the department says it knows nothing.

And it will release only limited information about the man who spends his mornings driving in rush-hour traffic across Auckland to work. Corrections said it is worried releasing details will be a threat to the inmate's safety.

"The only thing that would surprise the public about the Department of Corrections now is if they got something right," said National law and order spokesman Simon Power.

"If the Department of Corrections is involved, it's a disaster waiting to happen."

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said alarmed mothers contacted him after they discovered one of their workmates was a child sex offender on day release from prison.

He said he recognised the paedophile as a sex offender who was well-known for his crimes.

He contacted the manager of the factory where the mothers and paedophile were working and quizzed the manager over why he had not told staff of the convictions.

"They realised they were having lunch with a sex offender. They hadn't been told - and their children came into the factory."

Mr McVicar said Corrections should be telling people they were working with criminals. He said New Zealanders appreciated honesty and would be willing to give people a chance if they were upfront.

Colleagues of the inmate who drives a Corrections Toyota Hi-ace to work do not know he leaves from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo each day. The Department of Corrections would not reveal the man's convictions but the Herald on Sunday has been told he is in prison on drugs and violence charges.

The department would also not reveal details of the convictions of others involved in the return to work scheme because it says it would jeopardise their safety.

Among those recently allowed out is a convicted murderer who was released during the day without supervision and given transport. He has subsequently been released from prison.

In a statement, Corrections senior manager Brent Maughan said the employer of the Paremoremo prisoner knows about his past - and that he returns to jail to sleep in a cell each night.

Mr Maughan said the public had no right to know what the man's convictions were, how long he had been in the prison system or what type of vehicle he drove to work.

He said the prisoner covered the costs of using the Corrections' vehicle himself. Mr Maughan wrote that the inmate drove to Wiri, where he worked at the new Auckland Regional Women's Corrections Facility.

He said the inmate was one of four prisoners working on the prison in the past year and three of those prisoners had now been released.

The return to work scheme aims to ease a prisoner's transition into the community and improve their chances leading a crime-free life.

Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews, admitted the department's national office:
has no idea how many prisoners it has allowed out to work in the past three years;
has no idea of the convictions of the prisoners who have been allowed out;
has no idea which prison the prisoners are released to work from.

The information is kept on prisoner files at prisons, but the department had "no national records on this data".