All take and no work — a hard habit to break

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 15

All take and no work — a hard habit to break

Many young people have the attitude that it is better to be “bad and mad” than be nobody. One youth recently released from Rolleston Prison says that for prisoners, violence is as normal as buying a packet of cigarettes. “You are locked in 24 hours a day with men that you wouldn’t talk to in the street... it’s not a society, it’s a jungle.” Kevin Butson says the workers at the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society sometimes feel like they are sticking bandaids on a great big cut. He would like to see a prison system based on re-education, and more money put into prisoners’ rehabilitation. “We are getting generations of people now dependent on the welfare state. Their parents have been unemployed and so are they. “They don’t know what it is like to be a productive member of society. They are only used to taking,” says Kevin.

The response of one young prisoner to the news that he would receive only $l2O on his release was, “F... that ... I can’t even get out of it on that.” The same youth asked if P.A.R.S. could help him out with a pair of shoes when he left prison. He sneered at the offer of a $lO pair of sneakers, saying he wanted some shoes worth $l5O, and would

“knock someone off” to get them. Unless they are given some help in prison, most inmates do not change. For former prisoners who genuinely want to improve their lives, getting a job is next to impossible. Billy Kanara says that during his two years with P.A.R.S. he can recall

only two former prisoners finding satisfactory employment. A recent Department of Justice survey showed that the average time released inmates spent in the community before their next offence was 3.3 months. According to Kevin Butson, it is not unusual for prisoners to last only one day in the community after their release. “They are people who don’t fit anywhere in society. They get tattoos and wish they hadn’t ... in the end many of them die of O.D. or in car crashes.” Drugs and alcohol are a big part of the problems faced by many young prisoners. Kevin says they are often seen as a way to “numb the pain.” “That’s why some people sleep all the time in prison — it’s not real and they can dream.” P.A.R.S. and organisations like it are stretched to their limits trying to help prisoners. They have to spend much of their

time applying for additional funding. In 1987 the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society and the Christchurch Probation Service worked together to develop an adult fostering scheme which matches offenders recently released from prison with families in the community. The aim is for caring volunteers to help break the cycle of offending for

someone who has never experienced a positive family or home environment. Kevin admits that it is not easy to find people willing to take a former prisoner into their homes. However, volunteers can consider becoming a prison visitor as a way of initially becoming involved in the scheme.

Another area of hohpe for former inmates is the Salisbury Street Foundation. This is a residential, social re-entry programme run in Christchurch. The foundation has a life skills programme run on a five-day week, eighthour day routine, which caters for up to six people at one time. Its residential programme caters for a maximum of 10 residents at one time. Kevin sees some hope for more rehabilitation schemes in the recent Ministerial inquiry into the prison system. The chairman of the inquiry, Sir Clinton Roper, said the system did not deter offenders and did not rehabilitate. “It’s a great thing to involve people in submissions, but it is a matter of implementing them,” Kevin Butson says. “You have to get the community to accept the Government putting money into rehabilitation systems.”

‘lt’s not a society — it’s a jungle’

Caring volunteers help break the cycle