10 November 2006
Department of Corrections Chief Executive Barry Matthews today said greater community cooperation and assistance is vital to providing more employment opportunities for prisoners.
"Prisoner employment is an important step towards reducing re-offending and provides prisoners with employment skills, training and formal qualifications to help them find work on release," says Mr Matthews. "For this reason, we are aiming to substantially increase the number of prisoners employed in meaningful work."
Mr Matthews says Corrections launched its Prisoner Employment Strategy earlier in the year. The Strategy will help address the obstacles prisoners face in obtaining post release employment and aims to increase prisoner employment from 40 to 60 percent by 2009.
"It is in everyone’s interest that we do all we can to ensure prisoners leave prison to become law-abiding, independent and productive citizens," says Mr Matthews.
Corrections is looking to increase both prison-based employment and Release-to-Work opportunities. Release to Work is a form of temporary release allowing prisoners nearing release to be employed during the day in paid employment in the community.
Good prison-based industries are those that are labour intensive and allow Corrections to provide formal training to prisoners. Ideally, we are keen to work with employers who are having difficulty recruiting staff due to the current tight labour market or because they are experiencing a regional skills shortage.
"We want to hear from businesses and explore employment opportunities that are mutually beneficial," says Mr Matthews. "There is a wide range of industries operating in prisons, including uniform manufacturing, packaging and distribution, furniture making, light engineering and component assembly, and concrete panel manufacture.”
Mr Matthews says suitable jobs for prisoners on Release to Work are entry level positions such as labourers, machine operators, or warehouse workers and prisoners on Release to Work are currently employed in jobs in the harvesting, horticulture, silviculture, timber processing farming, construction, manufacturing and service sectors.
"These types of opportunities ultimately make communities safer because research shows prisoners who have a job post-release are less likely to re-offend. They also benefit communities by helping ease regional labour shortages and providing businesses with reliable staff."
"Corrections is working hard across the board to increase meaningful work in prisons. We need community assistance to progress this."
If you are interested in working with Corrections Inmate Employment to increase prisoner employment opportunities please contact Win McDonald on (04) 460-3341 or email cie.worktraining@corrections.govt.nz or cie.releasetowork@corrections.govt.nz.