For the past decade Corrections work parties have been helping Palmerston North City Council to keep the city’s walkways beautiful.
CIE Instructor Grant Squire says CIE makes a tremendous contribution towards beautifying Palmerston North, but few people know how much they really do.
“Planting trees, clearing scrub, general tidying up, track work - we’ve helped to set up or maintain many of the city’s walkways,” he says.
“It is hard, physical work, as Palmerston North has around 69 kilometres of walkways, but the prisoners enjoy it and it helps them to develop a work ethic that any employer would value.”
Prisoners in the eight-strong work party start work at 7.30 am and do eight hours of physical work.
Projects like this are part of Corrections’ new three-year Prisoner Employment Strategy which aims to provide prisoners with skills to help them find post-release employment, and works with industries to find employment opportunities for prisoners.
“This will ultimately contribute to making communities safer as having a job is an important factor in reducing re-offending,” says Grant.
The partnership with Palmerston North City Council involves the Council providing the work and materials and CIE providing the instructor and prisoner labour. The work parties do approximately 11,500 hours annually.
“The support we receive from Corrections is worth its weight in gold,” says Palmerston North City Council Parks Project Coordinator Charles Foulds.
“CIE is really responsive and flexible, contacting us each week to see what they can do. If something is urgent, like clearing logs from the river after flooding, they’re there within hours.”
Charles says he was pleasantly surprised by the initiative the prisoners show in solving problems.
“They will fix a bit of wire netting over a bridge because they are there and can see it needs to be done,” he says.
Prisoners have been helping maintain Palmerston North’s 69 kilometers of walkways.
The work party is now improving track access to the Manawatu’s platinum mines, building bridges, planting trees and maintaining paths.
“The leaves on the track are breaking down with all the rain and making it really slippery. We’ve been out there re-surfacing the track with metal so the public can use it safely,” says Grant.
Prisoners in the work party also have the opportunity to gain qualifications that will help them once they are released.
All eight prisoners in the work party are completing NZQA unit standards in forestry and chainsaw operation, mandatory requirements for a Certificate in Forestry Foundation Skills.
“One of the guys released last month was able to take up a job at a saw mill with the chainsaw qualifications and training he received with us,” Grant says.
“This is the employment strategy in action.”
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ISSN 1178-8453