Bail applications consider many factors, including whether the person can be released to an environment the court is happy with. Photo: UnSplash/ Matthew Ansley
People are being held in prison simply because they have nowhere to be bailed to, but authorities are not keeping track of how often it happens.
Steve* spent nine months in jail on accusations of indecent assault. He was later found not guilty, but not before his children had to move out of the family home so he could be released on bail.
"They had said 'yes dad we will go stay with my aunty and our brother so you could be out of prison', but I still felt guilty in the sense that they weren't here, they weren't allowed to be here. So they were still away from me and still very much missing me, as I was missing them."
Steve said the struggle to find a bail address was a common one.
"That's what I was hearing when I was in prison, they're just looking for an address, just an address. Somewhere that they can go to that's suitable, that the Crown will accept," he said.
"A lot of people in there on little charges, nothing serious, and they just can't get bail."
Neither the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) nor Corrections know how many people are in prison just because they have nowhere else to go.
"When a judge considers a bail application, they have to balance multiple factors, such as the liberty of the individual, against the interests of victims and safety of the community," MOJ said in a statement.
"The availability of a bail address is one of the many things a judge may be required to consider when making a bail decision and may not be the sole reason a bail application is unsuccessful."
Corrections said it was up to the courts to grant bail and determine whether or not an address was suitable, but it offered bail support services in some areas.
"If people seeking bail do not have suitable accommodation, our bail support officers can also support them with identifying a suitable address for the judge to consider. This could be with a family member, through a service provider, or at one of the three dedicated accommodation services Corrections operates in Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton."
Sumudu Thode from the Criminal Bar Association said the courts did not necessarily know when someone did not have an address for bail.
"The client might say 'well, don't make a bail application today but you can contact my mum and I could live there' and then we'd get another date for those enquiries to take place and for that appearance it's just a matter of saying a bail application's not being advanced, but not necessarily the reason."
However, she said the data should be collected, because some people in prison will not be convicted, let alone sentenced to jail. Those who are might still end up waiting in prison for longer than they would ultimately be sentenced to.
"If that data is going to help us to say we need X amount of residential facilities or wraparound support to look at what we can put in place so that prison is not a back-up option, then absolutely that data should be available."
Ahikaa Trust has provided bail accommodation in Auckland for more than a decade - often to people simultaneously struggling with other issues, like addiction or poor mental health.
Manager Karen Ngamu said requests for help had increased to more than a dozen each week.
"I'm fielding calls from so many from prison. It's sad, really sad," she said.
"Those are somebody's children, or somebody's parents, that the family's just had enough... because of their addiction. But you'll find a lot of them have never, ever been to a facility, had that help."
Finding accommodation was also a problem at the other end, when people were released from prison into the tight housing market. Ngamu said many support services had strict entry criteria, which did not take people's complex circumstances into account.
"For this certain one that's just recently opened, I see it still sits empty. We've got people ringing me screaming out for accommodation. It's just too hard to get in them."
Once out on bail, Steve had to start looking for another place to live so his children could move back home to their mum. Even though he had not been convicted, the stigma of having been in prison made it difficult to find a job to cover the rent.
Eventually though, he got lucky.
"I told them everything and they were alright. They said 'No, we'll still help you out', and I said 'Ohh'. Man I was so blessed, so lucky then. Otherwise I would've spent close to two years back in prison waiting for my trial."
However, for countless others still in prison, a bail address remains a distant hope.
* Name changed to protect privacy
