Multiplying welding skills

CIE Engineering Sector Manager Mark O’Neill has been in the engineering business for more than 20 years. He is seriously impressed with the welding work prisoners are doing for the Corrections Department’s double-bunking project.

Mark talks about a prisoner who had only been welding for three weeks. “It was amazing, I just couldn’t find anything wrong with the standard of his work.”

About 45 prisoners from Auckland Prison, Spring Hill, and Otago Corrections Facilities will be making headboards, ladders and bunk frames.

Corrections Department projections indicate our prisons will be full by early 2010. The only practical solution is to extend the practice known as double-bunking, where prisoners share a cell. Currently 21 per cent of prison beds are in shared cells.
 
The increased double-bunking is planned for our four newest prisons – Otago Corrections Facility, Northland Region Corrections Facility, Spring Hill Corrections Facility in North Waikato, and Auckland Regional Women’s Corrections Facility at Wiri.

These prisons are the best equipped for double-bunking because they have the necessary infrastructure for expansion, the best levels of security and technology, and are located in areas of greatest demand. Double-bunking at these four sites should give us around 900 more beds.

Mark says, “All the prisoner training involved in making the furniture for double-bunking contributes towards the National Certificate in Engineering. The prisoners start by cutting the raw material and removing the sharp edges. To make the bed frames the prisoner sets the frame up in a jig to tack weld the components into place. The frame is then moved to the next station to be welded again.

“We found that the bed bowed due to the amount of weld. Under the guidance of the qualified instructors the prisoners used this as a problem solving exercise. They worked out that to counter the bow you had to pre-bend the frames prior to fully welding it. The prisoners were then set the task to determine what the correct pre-bend should be, and they set about manufacturing the frames. That is a good sign as it shows the prisoners are taking ownership of their work. They are really getting stuck into it.

“Welding qualifications provide good prospects of finding a job on release. So this is also a fantastic training opportunity for the prisoners to create a crime-free life,” says Mark.

“As well as the bunk bed frame, prisoners are manufacturing the head boards and the ladders. The prisoners are closely supervised and monitored to ensure they build to a standard formula and that the security of the prison is not compromised in any way.”