Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
More people are serving prison time for crimes of which they are later cleared, new data reveals.
Jack* spent nine months in jail and then two years on bail before a jury declared him not guilty of indecent assault. He said he endured the mental anguish of prison while his family lost its sole earner and home.
"I feel like we've been violated in the most, most personal, deepest way possible," he said.
"It was a lot of 'what if's, 'what if's, and everyone would have that feeling, 'what if's. I don't have any money to pay big, significant lawyers to fight the charges or allegations. You do go to some dark places."
Jack's children were not allowed to see their dad for almost three years.
"When it was all over we sat down and had a big talk and it really, really took its toll on them. I believe had it gone any further it would've changed the direction of their lives."
Information released to RNZ revealed of the 13,879 remand prisoners who had their cases closed last year, 2138 or 15.4 percent were not convicted of their most serious charge - about double the 2014 figure of 1075.
Criminal Bar Association vice president Sumudu Thode said it was more common than most people thought.
"I think that is more than the general public would think in terms of innocent people being in prison," she said.
"There's the basic breaches of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act - everybody is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and these are innocent people because they're not proved to be guilty, at any point ... the charges were either dropped or withdrawn, or they were found not guilty at the end of a trial."
There was also an equity issue, because some people were only kept in prison because they did not have an address for bail, Thode said.
At more than $150,000 to house each prisoner per year, it was a "waste of taxpayer money".
"If you think about over 2000 people being in custody, and some of these people may not have been in custody for a year, but if all of those people had spent at least 12 months, that's over $300 million spent on housing these people in prison, when they are innocent."
The total number of remand prisoners has increased and so has the amount of time they spend in custody - currently an average of 79 days, up from 56 days ten years ago (in 2013/14).
One person was on remand for almost six years (2084 days), before being released in 2023.
"While this person spent a significant continuous period in remand, a number of different charges were finalised over that period, and they were sentenced to imprisonment on more than one occasion. However, on each occasion the sentence was less than the time they had already served on remand, and so they immediately reverted to remand as they still had further outstanding charges," the Department of Corrections said.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he was "very much concerned" about the increases and wanted to speed up court processes.
However, he said keeping some accused people in prison had always been part of the justice system.
"There's a very high threshold before people are kept on remand because there's a concern around public safety, that doesn't always lead to a conviction. I suppose the best antidote to that is to ensure that we can speed up the processes of the courts so that fewer people are in that category."
Whether that threshold was in the right place was ultimately a matter for the judiciary to decide during each individual case, Goldsmith said, while housing for those without a bail address was part of "a much broader challenge".
Earlier this year, the government announced a package aimed at supporting remanded inmates. For those yet to be convicted, it included optional reintegration programmes, alcohol and drug treatment, and educational or behavioural support.
Jack said that was a step in the right direction, but he also called for some acknowledgment of the time he had lost.
"Being found not guilty was a big relief, but there was nothing, not even a blinking 'sorry' ... no compensation, no anything. They just went on with their lives as if, 'oh well'," he said.
"We would like them to acknowledge their mistakes, and be held accountable."
*Real name withheld for privacy
