Floyd du Plessis: Corrections Association National President on prison populations being set to increase in the coming years

The Corrections union is sounding the alarm on prison capacity. 

The Ministry of Justice projects the prison population will increase 36 percent by 2035 to more than 14,000 people.

The Corrections Association of New Zealand says facilities are already at 95 percent capacity. 

National President Floyd du Plessis says he predicts it will be completely full within 18 months. 

He says some projects will slightly help - but more serious action needs to be taken now. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It looks like the government is going to have to

(00:01):
get a move on and build some more prisons. There's
a new report from the Ministry of Justice that predicts
that the prison population is going to grow by thirty
six percent just over the next ten years. Floyd Duplassy
is the national president of the Corrections Association. Hey, Floyd,
good evening, either why so many prisoners? Are we just
locking them up more?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yes, we're just locking them up more. There was six
ord years ago there was predictions that the prison population
was going to go to those numbers. It was a
time where National had obviously predicted and planned to build
some prisons that was scaled down under Labor And now
obviously with national backend, they've got that focus on crime

(00:42):
and focus on dealing with what's happening out in the
public and with that comes an increase in prison population.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
How close to capacity are we at the moment?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
At the moment, we're sitting in about ninety five percent capacity,
So it's not looking good at all. There is obviously
slight hope in the very very short term with Waycaria
coming online within the next two to three months, and
that'll give us another five hundred bids, so that'll increase
it very slightly. But even if we incorporate that, we're

(01:15):
still sitting at around that ninety percent capacity immediately, let
alone any small increase that's predicted over the next twelve months,
and we'll be full within twelve to eighteen months.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Brilliant, Oh just twelve to eighteen months, did you say.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, that's what our predictions are, given that even with that,
we're only sitting at about a ten percent buffer.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Right, So there's no way we can build another prison
in twelve to eighteen months. So we're going to have
to start looking at double bunking, aren't we.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
There's definitely going to need to be some serious plans.
We have been invited by the department to meet with
them next week to start looking at what options are
on the table and what can we do. But there
is no question obviously at the moment there is a
plan to build the new prison down in christ Church.
Means now that's only going to add another two hunred
and forty bids. But even that they announced at the

(02:04):
beginning of the year, they've got a completion date of
twenty twenty nine. So building these things it just takes
far too long and we're going to need to do
some serious planning now.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, all right, Floyd listen, thanks for talking us through
to appreciate. That's Floyd Duplicy Corrections Association, National President. For
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