Kerre Woodham: I can't see how you can justify giving prisoners massages

So, the Corrections Minister has halted a $9 million plan, as you will have heard this morning, to provide Rongoa Māori healthcare in prisons, including giving prisoners traditional massages called mirimiri, after questions were asked about the programme. Mark Mitchell said, first I heard of it. But Corrections launched a procurement process for the services in all New Zealand prisons in July, after a trial was run in a couple of prisons. Seemed to work well.

Kerre Woodham: Does a right to privacy trump the right to safety?

It was really disturbing to read the opening paragraph of this story on the murder of Juliana Bonilla Herrera. Truly frightening. It reads that high risk offenders are regularly being paroled from prison and into the community. It came from a senior Corrections staff member who was speaking at the coronial inquest into the murder of the Columbian woman. There is a shortage of suitable rehabilitation and accommodation options for high-risk offenders coming out of prison, and accordingly, other high-risk offenders, those with an even greater risk profile, are regularly being released into the community. And the public is not allowed to know who these high-risk offenders are.

John MacDonald: Is prison the wrong place for some offenders?

I’m liking what Sir Ron Young is saying about prison sentences today.

He’s really challenging us, saying that we need to re-think what we do with people given sentences of two-to-three years.

He’s talking about not sending them to conventional prisons and giving them conjugal rights.

Linda Mussell: New sentencing laws will drive NZ’s already high imprisonment rates....

New sentencing laws will drive NZ’s already high imprisonment rates – and budgets – even higher

With the government’s Sentencing (Reform) Amendment Bill about to become law within days, New Zealand’s already high incarceration rate will almost certainly climb even higher.

The new legislation essentially limits how much judges can reduce a prison sentence for mitigating factors (such as a guilty plea, young age or mental ability). A regulatory impact statement from the Ministry of Justice estimated it would result in 1,350 more people in prison.