Leaving 'Struggle Street'

A new Corrections-run community-based programme for young male offenders is aiming to improve public safety by turning offenders away from a life of crime.

Senior Psychologist Bronwyn Moth says the pilot programme was run in Christchurch and was completed successfully late last year.

“Corrections already runs rehabilitation programmes for young offenders who are in prison, but this programme targets those who are in the community,” she says.

Around 25 per cent of young people will commit an offence, and young offenders have the highest rates of re-offending in the country.

“Most young people ‘grow out of’ offending, but a small group – around three per cent of male offenders – will go on to become persistent offenders for most of their lives. The new programme is aimed at members of that three per cent who have a medium risk of re-offending,” says Bronwyn.

Advanced Programme Facilitator Nazea Silbery, who has worked with young offenders in prison programmes for several years, says studies show that programmes that put medium-risk young people together with high-risk offenders can actually increase the likelihood that the medium-risk group will become entrenched in a life of crime.

“So choosing the right people to do the programme is very important. Evidence shows that programmes must be targeted to work properly,” he says.

Six young men, ranging in age from 17 to 20, started the pilot programme, which ran over 43 two-and-a-half hour sessions, with additional sessions for family/whānau involvement. The programme aimed to stop their offending by challenging the justifications they made to excuse their offences, and by teaching them pro-social skills such as problem-solving, anger management and communication skills.

The six youths all had drug and alcohol abuse problems, and all except one had been significantly physically and verbally aggressive to others.

“Some had unhelpful personality traits, two had self-harm issues, and most came from very unstable family situations, at times involving violence,” says Bronwyn.

“It will give you some idea of their situations to know that only one participant was able to turn up consistently with a reasonable standard of hygiene. Frequently, they had not eaten in more than 24 hours, so the morning tea we offered was crucial in helping them maintain concentration.

“However, they recognised they all came from ‘Struggle Street’, as they called it, and had care and concern for each other. As the group formed, they showed a growing ability to change and give each other good advice.”

She says that of the six participants to start the pilot programme, four completed it successfully. Two had to leave the programme, one for too many absences and the other for erratic behaviour that was disrupting the rest of the group.

“It’s far too early to say that the four who completed the programme will never re-offend, but the pilot programme finished in September 2008 and none of them have re-offended yet (at February 2009). That’s not a very long time, but young people often offend again straight away so it’s a promising sign.”

Bronwyn, Nazea and their colleagues will run the programme again, starting in May this year.

“The pilot went well, but we need to keep refining and developing it,” says Bronwyn.

“For example, most participants needed help with finding somewhere suitable to live. One was sleeping on the sofa in an already over-crowded house, another was sleeping on the street. So we’re exploring options to help them with housing, employment, and so on, before they enter the programme – that would enable them to concentrate better on turning their lives around.”