Finding Jobs For Former Prisoners

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 1

Finding Jobs For Former Prisoners

The States Services Commission had advised the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association that the Public Service did employ former prisoners, said the association’s representative on the Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Board (Mr T. C. Eaton) yesterday.

The Public Service did reserve the right to select posi- i tions in which it would em- < ploy former prisoners, said i the commission in its letter i to the association. i Mr Eaton said that In 1 future the Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Board would direct 1 prisoners desiring Public * Service employment to the 1 Public Service. At present, said Mr Eaton, ' there were representatives of the master painters, master builders and the Manufacturers’ Association on the rehabilitation board. Their aim wjis to find employment and to re-establish prisoners in the community when they ‘ were released.

“We dre seeing about 12 men each month, each of whom is to be released the following month,” said Mr Eaton. “About 75 per cent of these'have not got jobs. . “Our job is to find potential employers and to discuss with them a particular prisoner and his background. “We try to find jobs where the former prisoner is likely to be reasonably happy. We try to reduce the ‘black mark’ against a man because he has served a prison sentence.

“We go to top-level management. Only three or four people know the prisoner’s background. In this way former prisoners can go back into the community quietly.”

Canterbury manufacturers, said Mr Eaton, were mast cooperative and very understanding. The first six months of the rehabilitation project in Canterbury had met with considerable success. Christchurch was the only centre in New Zealand with a rehabilitation board dealing only with employment. “The scheme is working very satisfactorily,” he said.