Barry Matthews (born 1946) was Chief Executive of the New Zealand

Department of Corrections In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and su ...

from 2005 to 2010. Prior to that he was a long-serving police officer. Matthews worked in the public sectors of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

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for almost four decades.

Police

Matthews served in the New Zealand Police from 1965 to 1999. He was District Commander, Auckland Services District from 1992 to 1993, then Assistant Commissioner Planning and Finance, Police National Headquarters from 1993 to 1995. In 1995 he became the Deputy

Commissioner of Police A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...

and was the project manager of the failed

INCIS INCIS was the name of the Integrated National Crime Information System designed to provide information to the New Zealand Police in the 1990s, but which was abandoned in 1999. Although the project was abandoned parts of its hardware and software ...

computer system, until the project was abandoned in 1999. In 1999, he left to take up appointment as

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

of the

Western Australia Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia to a population of 2.66 million people, of which 2.11 million reside in the Perth Metropolitan Region. Western Australia h ...

. His over-riding task as Commissioner was to root out police corruption in Western Australia. This led to a confrontation with senior politicians who asked him to resign.

Department of Corrections

Matthews replaced Mark Byers as chief executive of the New Zealand Department of Corrections in February 2005. In 2009 Matthews's leadership was questioned by the new Corrections Minister,

Judith Collins Judith Anne Collins (born 24 February 1959) is a New Zealand politician who has served as the attorney-general and minister of defence since 27 November 2023. She served as the leader of the Opposition and leader of the New Zealand National P ...

, after a run of bad publicity that included the murder of 17-year-old Liam Ashley in a prison van; the murder of Karl Kuchenbecker by Graeme Burton six months after he was released on parole; and the Auditor General's critical report on the Probation Service's management of parolees. Matthews exacerbated speculation about his leadership when he stated "there's no blood on my hands", regarding Burton incident. After an Auditor General's report was released in 2009, Collins refused to express confidence in Matthews and media commentators expected him to resign. An enquiry into the Corrections Department was conducted by the State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie, which revealed that Corrections had made efforts to improve and had warned the government of the day and the previous government that under-resourcing was putting public safety at risk. As a result, Matthews refused to resign, keeping his job and serving out his term. On his retirement he admitted he had dealt with so many crises, the Department was like a "landmine". He served as Chief Executive until December 2010 when he resigned. After his resignation, Matthews listed the installation of cell phone blocking technology at prisons throughout the country, better sentence compliance by the Probation Service and the establishment of the Professional Standards Unit which investigates corruption by prison officers as his top achievements while he was Chief Executive.Farewell interview with Barry Matthews
. ''Corrections News'', Nov/Dec, 2010, p 3.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Barry Commissioners of Western Australia Police Law enforcement in New Zealand Living people New Zealand police officers Penologists 1946 births