was screened. On 24 July 2015, Serco's contract to run the Mount Eden prison was revoked and operation was given back to the New Zealand Department of Corrections. Serco was ordered to pay $8 million to the New Zealand government as a result of problems at Mount Eden Prison while it was under Serco's management. Serco has also been given the contract to build and manage a new 960-bed prison at Wiri. The contract with Serco provides stiff financial penalties if its rehabilitation programmes fail to reduce reoffending by 10% more than the Corrections Department programmes. The Auckland South Corrections Facility was opened on 8 May 2015. The contract to operate the prison ends in 2040. Growth in Prison Population Since it was established, the department has had to cope with a dramatic growth in the prison population. Between 1997 and 2011 the number of inmates increased by 70% and, at 201 prisoners per 100,000 of population (in 2018), New Zealand has one of the higher rates of imprisonment in the Western world. The Fifth Labour Government built four prisons – at Ngawha (Northern Region) housing 420 prisoners, Springhill (north of Huntly) housing 840, Auckland Women's' holding 330 and Milton (Otago) holding 425 – at a cost of $890 million. When National came to power in 2008, the department built a new 1,000 bed prison at Mt Eden for $218 million in a public private partnership and gave the contract to Serco. The department's growth has been such that in July 2010, Finance Minister Bill English expressed concerns that government spending was "led by a rapidly expanding prison system which would soon make Corrections the government's biggest department". As at December 2011, New Zealand had 20 prisons and the department employed over 8,000 staff. The department's operating budget is over $1 billion a year. As at 30 September 2019, there were 10,040 people in prison in New Zealand. However, the prison population is very fluid and altogether about 20,000 people spend time in prison each year, the vast majority on remand. Nearly 75% of those given a prison sentence are sentenced to two years or less, and all these are automatically released halfway through their sentence. As 30 September 2019, 93% percent of inmates were male. 51.9% of prisoners were Māori, compared with about 16% of New Zealand's resident population. The cost of keeping a person in prison for 12