Dean*, a prisoner at Christchurch Men’s Prison, was brought up in the bush. As a child, he hardly ever went to school. Sometimes in winter he would go into the local public library to get warm. He couldn’t read, but he would look at the newspapers anyway, trying to work out the story from the photographs.
Today, Dean has several papers from Massey University under his belt, both in Maori language and tikanga Maori. He is also a master carver and carving tutor to other prisoners at Christchurch Men’s Prison.
Prison Education Programme Co-ordinator Lynore Weeks, says that Dean was taught to read by a literacy tutor at Dunedin Prison and since then he has blossomed.
"He didn’t just scrape through his Massey courses; he did really well," she says. However, will the education Dean has received in prison help him live an offencefree life when he is finally released?
"The best way to gauge success is if prisoners don’t come back at all," says Lynore. "I’ve been here four years and I can say that most of the prisoners who do tertiary study don’t come back."
Research backs up the view that education, whether at tertiary level, foundation level, or work-related, reduces re-offending. In fact, evidence suggests that participation in education reduces re-offending regardless of a prisoner’s level of risk. Education also increases a prisoner’s chance of finding a job. Some studies indicate that eduation reduces the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half.
Seventy-six percent of prisoners in New Zealand have no formal qualifications. Around half of all prisoners left school before Year 11 (Form 5) - that is around 3,500 people. Thirteen percent of prisoners are identified as having a literacy need.
Corrections provides a range of activities and programmes in order to help equip prisoners for employment and selfsufficiency when they are released. This includes provision of basic literacy and numeracy courses, National Certificate in Employment Skills (NCES), and on-the-job training in industries such as farming or forestry.
Those prisoners who have no formal qualifications automatically have an educational objective added into their sentence plans. Last year, this led to 40 percent of prisoners leaving prison with a New Zealand Qualifications Authority unit standard or full qualification.
Business Development Manager Brendan Anstiss says that Corrections plans to invest more in prisoner education and has recently reviewed its policy on education.
"We’ll be expanding the high quality educational courses that are working well, such as increasing the availability of basic literacy and numeracy courses and National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) modules," he says.
"We’ll be putting more emphasis on accurately screening and assessing for educational needs, and providing quality courses in literacy and numeracy across all prisons."
Brendan says it makes sense to provide more places in basic literacy and numeracy as these skills are critical to prisoners being able to engage in more advanced qualifications and employment.
"Last year we had just under 600 new enrolments to literacy programmes in prisons - that’s indicative of the level of demand."
"Having strong basic literacy and numeracy skills will enable prisoners to engage better in society, have greater access to services, be more employable, be able to undertake further education or training and increase access to rehabilitation programmes," he says.
Lynore says most prisoners who cannot read and write are keen to learn, but sometimes they have given up trying because they have been told they’re stupid and have started to believe it.
"These guys often have great memories because they can’t read or write - they remember phone numbers, everything. Part of my job is to explain to them that reading is just remembering a few words and then building on that."
(*Not his real name)
Paul Dempsey is a volunteer who teaches reading and writing to prisoners at the Youth Unit at Christchurch Prison. He is a patient and empathetic teacher because he understands his pupils' needs.
Paul was expelled from school two weeks shy of his fifteenth birthday. He had never quite mastered the art of reading.
When his own children were born, he felt sad at not being able to read bedtime stories to them, so decided to seek help through the Adult Reading Assistance Scheme.
He went on to Hagley High School as an adult student, and soon his tutor recognised his passion for helping students with literacy problems and asked him to stay on as a volunteer. Then Paul did a course at Christchurch Polytechnic to learn to teach literacy to adults.
He says initially he was a bit reluctant to volunteer at the prison as he had heard a few stories and was fearful of intimidation, but working one-on-one with students in the Youth Unit, he enjoys seeing his pupils succeed.
"It is truly rewarding," he says. "I love it!" Allthough he is a shift-worker, often finishing at 6am, he never misses one of his tutorials at the prison and is considering extending his volunteering hours.
"I wish someone had taken an interest in me when I was younger, it would have made a difference," Paul says.
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ISSN 1178-8453