Notes of the meeting held in Mayfair House, Wellington on Friday 13 February 2009.
Present:
Phil McCarthy (Chair) General Manager, Rehabilitation
Rachel Leota Service Development Manager
Russell Underwood Manager, Operational Policy
Diane Hallot National Advisor, Volunteers
David Major National Director, PCSANZ
Barry Timms Operations Manager, PFNZ
Apologies for absence: Lyanne Kerr, National Director, PARS. Basil Wakelin, National Director, PFNZ
Rachel Leota opened the meeting at 12 noon by welcoming everyone present.
Accuracy
The minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2008 were confirmed as a correct record.
Matters Arising
Volunteer Coordinator appointments
The meeting noted that there were still recruitment difficulties in Auckland for the Volunteer Coordinator position at ARWCF and Spring Hill. The South Island Coordinator position had been advertised and interviews were to take place shortly.
Location of Church services
Concerns had previously been expressed about the delivery of Church services in the units at some prisons, rather than in the prison chapel. This was still an issue at NRCF.
Action – Diane Hallot to follow up with Jonathan Howe at NRCF.
Recruitment of Maori Advisors
David Major requested an update on the recruitment of Maori advisors and their contact details. Phil McCarthy updated the meeting on the latest appointments to these positions.
Action – Diane Hallot to circulate names and contact details (see attached)
David Major noted the success of a recent hui attended by Des Ripi at which ways of better addressing Maori issues were discussed.
Pen pals
The meeting noted that there is no specific policy regarding pen pals and there is no intention to put a national mechanism in place. Local arrangements will remain.
David Major mentioned that the practice seems more widespread than was initially thought. Chaplains often make contact with ex-prisoners via card of letter about three months after their release. Now that the Prison Chaplaincy Manual is under review, David asked if this practice could be looked at further for reintegration purposes.
Action – Diane Hallot to review revised Chaplaincy Manual when completed, to ensure consistency with existing policies and procedures and the New Volunteer Handbook.
Diane Hallot tabled a brief Volunteer Progress Report. The latest report showed 2928 approved volunteers (excluding Kaiwhakamana and Fautua Pasefika ) a 3% increase since November 2008. However, the number of approved cultural visitors to prisons had decreased by 36, or 12%.
The meeting noted that Spring Hill was slow to approve volunteers. The chaplain was making some headway in getting the training underway, but this was made more difficult by the fact that there is not yet a Volunteer Coordinator for this prison.
The meeting further noted that volunteer groups and volunteers would require adequate lead-in time when it was decided to re-open Wellington Prison.
Russell Underwood updated the meeting on the status of the new Handbook for Prison Volunteers. The handbook had been approved by the BMG and the design and production work had started, although the original design had been scaled back somewhat to provide best value for money. The handbook would now be distributed in a Prison Services folder and go out to all existing volunteers with the next edition of CorrVolunteer. New volunteers would receive their copies of the handbook at their induction training. The new handbook would be presented to Volunteer Coordinators at their next face-to-face meeting. David Major asked if the Volunteer Handbook could also be presented at the Chaplains’ conference.
Russell Underwood confirmed that the final, post-consultation version of the “Staying Safe” presentation would now replace the “Getting Got” safety and security presentation for volunteers for use by the end of March. Barry Timms requested that the same package be used for Sycamore Tree programme participants.
Action – Rachel Leota to progress this with contract manager, Colin Ryder.
Russell Underwood updated the meeting on the success of the Volunteer Recognition Awards which were held in December 2008. Despite some low volunteer awareness in some areas, there was an excellent Prison Services’ turnout with many awards going to local volunteers. There was good local coverage of local occasions and press releases for all events, presenting a consistent message. Us@Corrections featured a one page article focusing on volunteer relationships. Overall, the response from the voluntary sector and the Department was extremely positive and collaborative, setting the tone for future events.
a. David Major raised the issue of the “8 to 5” regime and its impact on volunteer activities, given that most volunteers work during those times. He asked whether it was possible to hold an “open night” in each prison with extended hours of unlock in order to facilitate volunteer activities. Rachel Leota mentioned that the 8 to 5 regime is currently only applied to high security units and at all of Waikeria Prison.
Action – David Major to survey individual prisons to assess the 8 to 5 position at each site and the possibility of implementing volunteer activities on a designated evening.
b. David Major mentioned the Prison Chaplaincy Service would be holding a prisoner art exhibition in May. He asked about the Department’s position on the display of prisoner art. In the absence of a formal policy, he would liaise with Prison Services when planning the event.
c. Barry Timms updated the meeting on the success of the Angel Tree in December 2008. The number of prisoners requesting gifts had risen again. He questioned the need for Hawkes Bay prison staff to ring each caregiver themselves, even though this work was also done by PFNZ.
Action – Diane Hallot to approach Vicky Mavin, Volunteer Coordinator in Hawkes Bay for further information in this regard.
d. Russell Underwood informed the meeting that there were now two volunteer administration assistants starting up in Wellington and Auckland respectively.
e. David Major raised the matter of volunteer ID. The meeting noted that while the national project for consistent ID had been put on hold, Christchurch Prison had elected to continue with its own local procedure and other prisons may choose to follow suit.
Dates for the next three PVAG meetings were confirmed and agreed:
Friday 1 May 2009 at 1.00pm
Friday 24 July 2009 at 1.00pm
Friday 16 October 2009 at 1.00pm
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting closed at 1.40pm.