Category: Lack of rehabilitation

How the justice system and the Corrections Department fail to provide adequate rehabilitation programmes

7,000 prisoners on short sentences excluded from rehabilitation

Over 7,000 people in New Zealand are sent to prison each year on ‘short sentences’ – defined by the Corrections Department as two years or less.  In fact, 80% of all those sent to prison are given short sentences – and are automatically released after serving half of their time.  Only offenders imprisoned for two years or more serve their whole sentence – unless the Parole Board releases them earlier. Ever since the Graeme Burton debacle, most of those on ‘long’ sentences now serve at least two thirds.

Because short-term prisoners not there for very long, the Corrections Department does not generally allow them to attend education, training or rehabilitation programmes. The Department’s website says: “The amount of time to be served (by those on short term sentences) is likely to severely limit the offender’s opportunities… This means it is very unlikely that these offenders will attend rehabilitative programmes while in prison.”  

The revolving prison door

Many offenders given short sentences commit ‘public nuisance’ type offending – usually under the influence of alcohol. Often they are in and out of prison again and again without attending any kind of intervention. To get into a rehabilitation programme in prison, they have to commit a more serious offence and receive a sentence of more than two years – otherwise they’re not likely to be eligible.

In other words, out of the thousands of New Zealanders sent to prison in the last 50 years, 80% have not been allowed to attend any rehabilitation programmes – because their offending was not considered serious enough. So they sit around for up to a year with virtually nothing to do – as described in the Ombudsman’s report on the treatment of prisoners in 2006.

A drop in the bucket

It may be that this short-sighted approach is beginning to change. In June 2010, a three-month alcohol and drug programme began at Otago prison targeted at short-term offenders. This will allow around 120 short-term inmates to receive treatment. In November 2010, another drug treatment unit (DTU) opened at an Auckland prison. A third DTU opened at the Wanganui prison in Septemeber 2011, enabling the number of short-term inmates eligible to receive alcohol and drug treatment to about 500 per year. That’s 500 places for 7,000 prisoners sent to prison each year on short sentences – little more than a drop in the proverbial bucket. Since the vast majority of those in prison have alcohol and drug problems, they will still miss out.

Want to know more about our crazy prison system? Get the inside story from: Flying Blind – How the justice system perpetuates crime and the Corrections Department fails to correct. 

Illiterate prisoners not allowed to attend rehabilitation

According to Corrections Minister, Judith Collins, 90% of prisoners have low literacy levels. She acknowledges this is a problem but claims to be tackling the issue. Launching a ‘Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy’ in October 2009, she said:

“For many prisoners, re-offending is perhaps less a matter of choice than the result of them being poorly equipped to lead a law-abiding and productive life. The skills they lack seem fundamental to the rest of us. Approximately 90% of prisoners have low literacy levels.” The Minister stressed to those attending the launch that prisoner training and employment was a ‘must have’, not a ‘nice to have’.

Continuing this theme, in June 2011, Ms Collins said: “It makes sense that if you… teach them to read and write and help them develop a good work ethic, you reduce the risk of them committing crime when they leave prison.”

Only 1.5% succeeding

It sounds like she really cares. But if 90% of prisoners have problems with reading and writing, surely the Department would make literacy classes a top priority for the majority of inmates. But it struggles to provide classes for more than a few. In 2005, the NZ Herald reported that only 353 inmates attended literacy classes and nearly half of the $3 million education budget went unspent.

Five years later (2010), Dr David Wales, Assistant General Manager for Rehabilitation and Reintegration Services, claimed 1,496 prisoners attended classroom based literacy and numeracy education. That sounds like an improvement – but these figures are deceptive. The Department’s Annual Report says only 9% were assessed by their tutors as having reached a satisfactory level and actually completed the programme.

Nine per cent of 1,496 is only 135 prisoners – even less than attended in 2005. What’s worse, the figure of 135 represents only 1.5% of the prison muster. That’s a disgrace.

Illiteracy an obstacle to rehabilitation

And the ramifications are serious. Prisoners who are unable to read and write are not permitted to attend other rehabilitation programmes (because they require literacy skills). In other words, illiterate prisoners are not allowed to attend programmes which target the causes of offending such as alcohol and drug abuse, anti-social thinking, violence, sexual offending, etc. They have to learn to read and write first. No wonder so many ex-prisoners relapse to alcohol and drugs and re-offend on release.

The lack of literacy is prison is akin to literacy levels in the dark ages. For the vast majority of people who end up in prison, literacy and employment training still remain something that would be ‘nice to have’ – no matter what the Minister may claim.

This issue is discussed at length in Roger Brooking’s new book – Flying Blind – How the justice system perpetuates crime and the Corrections Department fails to correct.