Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Corrections/INZ Prisoners Programme

• Annual Report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity

Annual Report

Purpose: To identify prisoners who fall within the deportation provisions of the Immigration Act 2009 as a result of their criminal convictions, or are subject to deportation from the country because their visa to be in New Zealand has expired.

Year commenced: 2005

Features: Data transferred weekly by online transfer.

Corrections disclosure to INZ: Corrections discloses information about all newly admitted prisoners. Each prisoner record includes full name (and known aliases), date and place of birth, gender, prisoner unique identifier, and name of the prison facility. Each prisoner's offence and sentence information is also included.

INZ disclosure to Corrections: For prisoners who are subject to removal or deportation orders, and who have no further means of challenging those orders, INZ discloses the full name, date and place of birth, gender, citizenship, prisoner unique identifier, immigration status and details of removal action that INZ intends to take.

2010/11 activity: 

Match runs	51
Possible matches identified	354
Cases excluded as not being eligible for removal or deportation	298
Notices of adverse action	56
Successful challenges	1
Cases considered for removal or deportation	51
Removals and deportations from NZ at year's end	29

Commentary: The Immigration Act 2009 was implemented on 29 November 2010. This year's figures include both removals and deportations commenced under the 1987 Act and progressed under the 2009 Act, and deportations commenced and progressed under the 2009 Act.

Last year we reported on an anomaly between Police and Corrections sentencing records. The Department for Courts (Courts) investigation to see if data transferred from their records to Corrections was involved could not be completed because Corrections was unable to provide the requested data. INZ advises that, along with Corrections, they will investigate any further issues on a case by case basis.

In March, we met with INZ and Corrections officials to be briefed on the steps taken to resolve data matching anomalies signalled in previous reporting. The anomalies relate to multiple aliases and old sentencing records appearing on data match reports.

The issue about multiple alias records was resolved by INZ modifying the data match report prior to it being provided to the compliance team. Corrections has identified a number of valid reasons why these old sentencing records can appear on match reports. INZ and Corrections advise they now have an arrangement in place for these anomalies to be dealt with as they are detected.

During the year we expressed concern to INZ about the routine retention of Corrections match information in an INZ operations report which appeared to breach the information matching rules. Following a review of the information contained in the report, INZ now removes the information we considered to be Corrections information once all immigration action is complete.

Compliance: Compliant but see comments.

Technical information

Information matching provisions	Corrections Act 2004, s.181
Year authorised	2004
Programme type	Confirming eligibility Updating data
Unique identifiers	Corrections Entity Identification Number
On-Line transfers	Yes

System description

Each week, Corrections uses an encrypted connection to transfer a file containing details of all newly admitted prisoners to a third party service provider. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) uses a secure connection to access and retrieve the file held by the service provider. The service provider cannot trigger uploads or downloads, and has no access to the contents of any file.

Each prisoner record includes identifying information such as full name (including aliases), date of birth, gender, and citizenship. Also included are details of the prisoner's offence, home detention details (if applicable), length of sentence, and dates of sentence commencement, parole eligibility and statutory release.

INZ matches the prisoner information with information relating to persons who are in New Zealand unlawfully or on temporary visas. The matching process uses different combinations of information to identify possible matches. The match results are manually checked before a letter (s.103 notice of adverse action) is sent to the individual at the prison. To make absolutely sure that the correct person has been identified, INZ Compliance Operations staff interview the prisoner.

Where a prisoner is subject to deportation or removal orders and has no further rights of appeal, INZ supplies Corrections with the prisoner's immigration status, including the date of any proposed removal action. This helps Corrections to make appropriate decisions about the prisoner's management. For example, a prisoner might not be considered for re-integration assistance or temporary release.

Historical activity

	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10
Match runs	47	51	49	52	51
Number of client cases revealed by matching	588	411	335	340	365
Cases excluded as not being eligible for removal or deportation	420	326	269	287	314
Notices of adverse action	195	85	66	53	51
Successful challenges	27	27	0	1	0
Cases considered for removal or deportation	168	58	56	46	50
Number of removals and deportations from NZ at year's end	10	24	32	34	26

 

As removals and deportations can take many years to complete and because of the manual nature of the processes associated with this match, INZ advises that it is not realistic for them to update the figures for previous fiscal years. Instead, the removal and deportations recorded as at each year end includes cases initiated in previous years but completed in the current fiscal year. In effect, we provide a rolling result of case outcomes from the commencement of the programme.