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Corrections Act 2004

Preliminary provisions

5: Purpose of corrections system

You could also call this:

"What the corrections system is for: keeping you and your community safe and helping offenders rehabilitate."

The purpose of the corrections system is to improve public safety and contribute to a just society. You can think of it like this: the corrections system aims to keep you and your community safe by managing sentences and orders given by the courts and the New Zealand Parole Board in a safe and humane way. This includes operating corrections facilities according to rules and helping offenders to rehabilitate and reintegrate into the community.

The corrections system does this by administering sentences, such as home detention and custodial sentences, in a secure and effective manner. It also provides programmes and interventions to help offenders rehabilitate and become a part of the community again. The system operates corrections facilities according to rules set out in the Act and regulations, which are based on the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

The corrections system also gives information to the courts and the New Zealand Parole Board to help them make decisions. This is all part of how the corrections system works to improve public safety and contribute to a just society, and it does not change how other laws work.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM295298.

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"Rules to keep people safe and fair in the corrections system"

Part 1Preliminary provisions

5Purpose of corrections system

  1. The purpose of the corrections system is to improve public safety and contribute to the maintenance of a just society by—

  2. ensuring that the community-based sentences, sentences of home detention, and custodial sentences and related orders that are imposed by the courts and the New Zealand Parole Board are administered in a safe, secure, humane, and effective manner; and
    1. providing for corrections facilities to be operated in accordance with rules set out in this Act and regulations made under this Act that are based, amongst other matters, on the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners; and
      1. assisting in the rehabilitation of offenders and the reintegration of persons under control or supervision into the community, where appropriate, and so far as is reasonable and practicable in the circumstances and within the resources available, through the provision of programmes and other interventions; and
        1. providing information to the courts and the New Zealand Parole Board to assist them in decision-making.

          1. Subsection (1) does not affect the application or operation of any other Act.

          Notes
          • Section 5(1)(a): amended, on , by section 58 of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2007 (2007 No 27).
          • Section 5(1)(c): amended, on , by section 6 of the Corrections Amendment Act 2024 (2024 No 41).