FORUM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 15

FORUM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

By

SUZANNE KEEN

Being inside is a way of life

Everyone has heard of yuppies and their opposites, streetkids. Now meet an equally common, though less obvious breed of young people — Yips, or Yippies. They are young people ivho spend a lot of their life in prison.

During recent years the number of young people in New Zealand prisons has increased dramatically. According to statistics provided by the National Youth Council, 65 per cent of those imprisoned are 17 to 24 years old.

Sixty per cent of violent offences are committed by those in the 15 to 24 age group. A field worker with the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society in Christchurch, Kevin Butson, says the idea of young first offenders being imprisoned for minor crimes is a myth.

Most of them have been getting into trouble for many years and have already been through the cycle of periodic detention and borstal. Many receive hefty sentences for violent crimes. The workers at P.A.R.S. can recall youths as young as 13 or 14 going to

prison for rape and murder. Kevin, a former inmate himself, blames bad parenting, poor education, and culture struggles for our large number of Yips. The majority come from single-parent, lowincome families, where their parents may drink heavily. In today’s material world they see other people with expensive cars or things they cannot have themselves and they may be tempted to steal. ‘‘l think the education system also has a lot to answer for,” says Kevin. “There are a lot of kids who cannot read and write — it would be interesting to know the literacy level in our prisons.” Many are not encouraged at home to read books. “We think we would do things like put books in the prisons but I remember when I was there and the library was really under-utilised.” Many young Maori also feel robbed of their heritage. They feel they have nowhere to go where they can be accepted, and so move to the city where they ultimately end up in trouble with the law. P.A.R.S. estimates that about 40 per cent of inmates in Canterbury prisons are aged under 25. Because of the overcrowding in prisons, most are not separated from older, more hardened prisoners. People are often forced to serve their prison sentences away from their home towns and families. Some are spending long

periods in the holding cell at the Christchurch Central Police Station because there is no room in the region’s prisons. Kevin says he recently received a call from a couple distressed because they could not find their son. They thought he was at Addington Prison, but it was eventually discovered he had spent a week in the holding cell. Many young people do not understand how the prison system works, or their rights within it. Although they receive an information book on their first day, most prisoners do not, or cannot read it. “Young guys get pushed around all the time,” observes Billy Kanara, another field worker. “They don’t know who to talk to, and they get left in the dark.” Kevin Butson describes prisons as a “school of crime.” “The attitude and knowledge of people who have done years and years in prison rubs off. Young people are at an impressionable age.” He says there is little for inmates to do but watch videos, (often violent ones) play cards or darts, and tell “old war stories.” When the field workers visit, they are often asked to provide Penthouse magazines. “We go out and see people there and feel helpless,” says Kevin. “It is really difficult with young people because they have that mana about them and they are trying to be cool and tough and play up to the inmate image.”