The Karaka Special Treatment Unit, based at Waikeria Prison, is a 40 bed treatment unit for men who have repeatedly committed a range of serious crimes.
International and New Zealand research has shown that cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation programmes that focus on relapse prevention, can produce significant reductions in the rate of re-offending for prisoners.
The Karaka Special Treatment Unit was established in 2008 to treat men who have repeatedly committed a range of serious offences and help them to avoid re-offending.
Aims
The Karaka programme aims to reduce re-offending by:
• Motivating prisoners to want to change.
• Reducing the recidivism risk of men who have committed serious crimes using intensive group treatment that targets risk factors associated with re-offending.
• Increasing the safety of the public by providing prisoners with lifelong skills that will assist them to manage their risk factors.
The programme
Research has proven that programmes, activities and therapy are most effective when matched with a prisoner’s rehabilitative needs, characteristics and demographics including their cultural background.
• Prisoners are referred to the programme on the basis of their potential risk and the nature of their previous offending.
• The Department of Corrections Community Probation and Psychological Services runs the Karaka Unit in conjunction with Prison Services.
• Prisoners are assessed for risk before, during and after the programme.
• The treatment in the programme is largely delivered in a group environment focus but individual sessions do occur when deemed necessary.
• The "Community of Change" concept underpins all the programmes activities. The community philosophy can be used to motivate individual change, and is communicated via all the other structures and process. It contains a number of aspects, including:
o Communalism (common ideals and goals of the community)
o Re-socialisation
o Participation in decision making
o Constructive use of peer group influence
o Interpersonal behaviour focus
• Modules worked through by the group include:
o Whakawhanaungatanga, (process of getting to know each other).
o Distress tolerance
o Offence mapping
o Cognitive restructuring
o Managing emotions
o Alcohol and drugs
o Te taha whanau, (Maori mental health)
o Relationships
o Safety planning
Effective treatment
The Karaka Unit will be subject to formal evaluations. The programme is operated on the basis of effective treatment guidelines drawn from New Zealand and international research.
Eligibility
To be admitted into the Karaka Unit, prisoners must:
• Be convicted of one or more serious criminal offences.
• Volunteer to participate in the programme.
• Be serving a sentence of imprisonment with at least enough time to serve to allow completion of the nine-month programme. Prisoners will be targeted for entry at 18 months prior to their 2/3rds date (or 18 months prior to PED for people on indeterminate sentences).
• Have a Roc*Rol (risk assessment) of .7 or above or for people with convictions for sexual crimes with adult victims a score of 3 and above on the Automated Sexual Recidivism Scale.
• Not be facing any further criminal charges.
• Not be suffering from mental health illness or intellectual disability that would interfere with programme participation.
• Be 20 years and over (18 – 20 year old prisoners can be considered on a case-by-case basis).
Prisoner obligations
Prisoners admitted to the Karaka Unit must:
• Not use threatening or violent behaviour (men who do use violence or repeated threats of violence can be evicted from the programme).
• Understand that they can refuse further treatment and are free to withdraw from the programme at any time but participate in all aspects of the programme whilst there.
• Be honest about their offending and open to changing problematic patterns of behaviour.
• Support other participants to address the issues that contribute to their offending behaviour.
• Abide by the rules at all times.
General information
• Department of Corrections Community Probation and Psychological Service runs the Karaka Unit in conjunction with the Prison Service.
• Participants typically spend a minimum of 12 hours each week in therapy.
• Every participant leaving the programme has parole conditions to comply with which may include further treatment.
• Prisoners complete the programme as near as possible to their release date.
• Most participants will have a New Zealand Parole Board hearing while at the unit. A psychological report is provided to the Board, which outlines treatment participation and progress.
• The programme operates on the basis that offending is a learned behaviour.
• Participants may be referred for additional assessment or treatment during their parole period so they can continue to obtain the support they need while in the community.