Probation Officer Paora Te Are
Probation officers manage offenders serving part or all of their sentence in the community - including parolees and others on home detention. Probation officers have a tough but challenging job, in what is truly a worthwhile profession.
When Hamilton Probation Officer Paora Te Are heads off to work each morning, he faces a day of juggling visits to prisoners in their homes, with report-ins and report-writing back at the office.
Paora does random checks on each of the prisoners in his home detention caseload about three times a week. Between visits he meets with offenders on parole who report to him weekly at his service centre.
Meanwhile, much of the rest of his day is spent organising on the phone, and writing reports for judges - on an offender’s suitability for parole or a home detainee’s progress in complying with the conditions of his sentence.
Paora is passionate about his job. He describes it as very busy, but very rewarding. Of Te Arawa Tuhoe descent, Paora grew up in Rotorua. The 34-year-old father of three says he has always wanted to work with offenders.
"If you enjoy interaction with a wide selection of people you will definitely love this job," he says.
Paora says the need to identify strengths in people, and enhance and build on those strengths, is one of the main challenges that keeps him going.
While some offenders are volatile, many respond positively to guidance.
Paora recalls one man whom he encouraged to complete his community work sentence.
"I told him it was a way of paying for the consequences of his offending, and that finishing his sentence would show he was prepared to start making changes now."
Paora also pointed out that the offender would then be a positive role model for others doing community work. Later, the reformed man called into the office dressed in a suit, and passed on the message that he and his family were doing well.
Such interaction with offenders, that supports a positive change in their behaviour, is extremely rewarding, says Paora. However, much of his job satisfaction is also from working with other probation officers. They are people who care, he says, and who need to exercise sound judgement to ensure the safety of the public to the best of their abilities.
Paora says a probation officer’s lot is an unusual blend of "enforcer and motivator".
Probation officers must ensure people on home detention are staying within the boundary of their electronic monitoring and attending courses, such as drug and alcohol treatment.
Probation officers monitor offenders on parole and check they are reporting as required, staying in their approved accommodation, and sticking with their approved work or courses. Each year around 12-15 percent of people breach their parole and return to prison for non-compliance.
Probation officers also motivate offenders to undertake life skills and other courses which will hopefully increase their self awareness, confidence and support networks. Probation officers prompt offenders to access help and support in the community from iwi and community groups, churches, health services, and other providers.
Paora says his former role as a whanau support worker for Family Start, funded by the Ministry of Health, equipped him to move into the Community Probation Service. He also has had six years' experience in the New Zealand Navy to draw from.
Paora's interest in offender management was heightened by the psychology and criminal conduct papers he did as part of a Bachelor of Social Sciences at Waikato University.
Probation officers come from all walks of life - and right now the department's Probation and Offender Services is undertaking a recruitment drive to source 200 extra staff to manage the new community sentences the Government is legislating for under its Effective Interventions policy.
For Paora the probation service is a career choice he has never regretted. Being a probation officer, he says, is "a vocation not a job".
For a recruitment information pack call 0800 1 PROBATION.
Got a story for Corrections News or want to request the print edition?
Email commdesk@corrections.govt.nz or phone (04) 460 3365.
ISSN 1178-8453