Critics say new ‘shock’ tactics to blame for training centre violence

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 21

Critics say new ‘shock’ tactics to blame for training centre violence

By

VICKI FUREY

Thirteen youths have escaped from Roßeston Corrective Training Institution since April 1 this year — two more than the total for the previous year.

In June, five inmates were transferred to other penal institutions after investigations into allegations of bullying, harrassment. and intimidatory tactics at the centre.

A visiting justice for Christchurch prisons. Judge K- W. Frampton, has said, in sentencing an escaper, that he was conscious of problems of violence at the centre. "I am aware it can almost be an act of cruelty to send a youngster out there.” he said.

Are the escapes and '■violence" a problem which plagues penal institutions from time to time, or are they linked with a change in the ' regime." effective from April 1 this year? Critics of the new corrective training programme, which replaced Detention Centre, lay the blame squarely at the feet of the Government. They say that the change in the direction of this three months' sentence, for young people aged 15 to 19 has been a "political decision."

The Rev. Don Prince, the National Council of Churches chaplain to Roßeston Prison and Corrective Training Institution. and Sister Maria O'Connell, the Catholic chaplain to the Corrective Training Institution, had been involved in Thursday afternoon counselling sessions for inmates. which began in 1976.

These sessions are no longer held because the days are now devoted to hard work and exercise.

Corrective training, says Mr Prince, was supposed to be different. Il was meant to build upon the progress that had been made with the programme in the former detention centre sentence.

A planning conference in October. 1980. saw the new programme as providing a balance between a rigorous, personally demanding sentence while providing at the same time a supportive environment in which personal confidence could be built, along with the development of social skills, he says.

It had been planned to achieve this by consistent work experience, group experience of both a therapeutic and social nature, bv

remedial education, physical training, and training in social skills and human relationships. At the beginning of February. the Secretary for Justice (Mr J. F. Robertson) advised the intention and objectives of the corrective training sentence:

"The sentence is different to imprisonment and must be seen as such by the courts who impose it. those who receive it. and those who administer it. In essence, the objective of the sentence is to reduce reoffending by the experience of a punitive but fair sentence. ‘The activities must reflect the intention and objectives of the sentence. As in the case of its forerunner. Detention Centre, the programme is to provide a rigorous way of life and work for a short period. Inmates are to be subjected to an exacting regime with the emphasis on a fast tempo and alertness.

"Of importance. but secondary to the fundamental programme activity, is a programme of counselling and social skills training designed to assist the inmate on his release."

The planning group's recommendations for the new programme had been fully endorsed, says Mr Prince, but by the end of the month the group had been told that the programme had been reviewed. Sister Maria and Mr Prince think that it was a review inititiated by Government caucus. Thev were told that the Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) had made it clear that the sentence was to be "short, sharp, and punitive." As a result, education officers were removed from

corrective training centres, all group activities during the day were cancelled, and social skills learning programmes abandoned. The result — a programme lacking in meaningful incentives and objectives about which the staff are unenthusiastic and to which the trainees lack commitment. Mr Prince says.

Evening classes, provided by Riecarton High School, are still held twice a week, and on two other nights speakers are brought in from a variety of groups, ranging from the Police and Social Welfare Department to Red Cross and the Family Planning Association. On Sunday evenings, a parenting and child development course, organised by the Co-ordinat-ing Organisation for Parent Education (C.0.P.E.). is run for inmates. Even so. Sister Maria and Mr Prince say that the whole tone of the place has changed: there is no longer a balanced approach to the needs of the people at the centre.

In the abandoned day-time sessions probation officers, chaplains, and social work trainees led small groups in discussions on personal problems.

Sister Maria says' that she is convinced that what the inmates need most of all is confidence in their own ability to cope in society. In those small groups ' they learnt to talk about their problems and felt it was safe to do so. Everything, the hard work, exercise, discipline. education, and counselling had a point as they were

part of a co-ordinated programme. Now. says Mr Prince, there is "no light at the end of the corrective training programme as it is not giving inmates a view of anything real." Even though the sentence is relatively short — three months, but effectively, with full remission, two months — major gains had been made by helping people to learn to talk and to “feel okay" about talking. “Now the only way the inmates can express what they feel is not by talking, but by acting out — by escaping and by violence." People just don't know how to cope with violence in the community so they have resorted to destroying what was potentially a positive programme.

It appears as though the political pressure has been aplied so that the Government can say violence is being attended to. says Sister Maria.

"Not every guy is there for being violent, but ho certainly will be violent after he leaves." she adds.

Anne Marshall, the president of C.0.P.E.. says that there has been a change in the atmosphere at the centre. She describes that atmosphere as "horrible." She is disappointed in the change in programme because it is making it harder for the people involved in the parenting course to go out to the centre. When the counselling sessions were being run the boys had a lead in. Now it is difficult to capture their interest; many could

see no point to the programme.

Mrs Marshall says that she visited one boy in hospital, who had been at the centre. He had told her that he had been thinking about what a psychologist had been saying about his life. He had been brought up in a boys' home. All his life someone else had done the thinking for him. He admitted that he had .lacked self-discipline and motivation.

The counselling sessions had at least made that one boy think, she says. Mr Robertson, the Secretary for Justice, says that local people had naturally been disappointed in the programme changes, but the intention of the sentence is quite clear. He had made the decision, as the administrator of penal institutions, that the planning group's recommendations were not in line with Government policy.

This in no way reduced the Justice Department's commitment ' to education, “where practical to do so." The time available for education in corrective training institutions was not really sufficient. He would rather use the resources in youth prisons where the sentence was longer, the regime different. and there was more of a chance of some impact on the inmates. The Minister of Justice. Mr McLay, has said that in no way can the sentence be seen as "straight punishment" nor did it remove the chance for inmates to receive some remedial social training.

Inmates could receive education and counselling from 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m.. and al other times if thought necessary. Because it was such a

short sentence the opportunity for any substantial programmes directed towards education and social adjustment was severely limited.

But the new programme did not retreat from the policy that successive Governments and his department had pursued over the years.

"Rather, it continues the recognition for an alternative form of custodial sentence but reflects the realisation that the likelihood of rehabilitation within the custodial system is minimal, and that even this is reduced when the sentence is one of short duration." New Zealand and overseas evidence indicated that the changes produced in individuals by institutional "treatment" programmes were unlikely to reduce re-offending. Rangipo and Tongariro Prison (Hautu) corrective training institutions, both for youths, have had no incidents of violence since April 1. but there have been a number of escapes — 12 from Hautu and at least nine from Rangipo. The only such centre for girls. Arohata. has had, none of these problems, recently.

Authorities at Rangipo and Hautu say that they are not alarmed about the number of escapes since April 1. Hautu has had as many as 13 escapes in one month. But one prison officer does say that a possible factor in the upsurge of escapes is that boys who have been to Borstal can now be sentenced to corrective training. Detention Centre was for first offenders only. All of these other centres have single cell accommodation: Roßeston does not.

Ken Langley, the superintendent of Roßeston prison.

believes that the string of escapes from the corrective training centre has had little, if nothing, to do with the change in the programme. "These things run in waves — once someone escapes it prompts the rest."

It is the nature of the programme that has changed, not the staff. Prison officers are always prepared to listen to inmates. Each trainee usually has one officer, "he clicks with."

He agrees with Judge Frampton that it could be cruel to send a person to corrective training, but as in every aspect of life there is a pecking order and it is "hard luck if you land at the wrong end of the pecking order."

For many. corrective training is their first introduction to a custodial sentence and it can be a “short, sharp, shock." says Mr Langley. No-one likes court proceedings or prison, and most people will do anything to avoid either, but the hard work and fast tempo are enough to make at least 50 per cent think twice about coming back. Inmates work six days a week, and six and a half hours a day, on average. The centre always gets feedback from employers and parents who remark on the bovs' working ability and behaviour.

Mrs Jessie Thompson, the centre's education officer, who is based at Christchurch Women's Prison, says that it does concern her that at no place, or no time, do the boys have a chance to think on their own predicament as they are always in groups.

Since the withdrawal of day-time education most of the boys mean no more to her than names on pieces of paper. She says that she has no real way of remedying this as her job is that of a dav-time education officer.

The boys might not have learnt a lot in the classes but they had given them a chance to relate to someone different and in this case it happened to be a woman.

Often, she says, she was able to pick up things that were upsetting the boys and talk things through with them. Now there is not really the opportunity for counselling.

The probation service has, however. been allocated eight hours in each boy’s sentence to gel him ready for release.