The parents of 18 troubled South Auckland secondary school students have applauded Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) staff for meeting with their children and trying to turn them around.
Facing their last warning before expulsion, the students have committed crimes ranging from selling drugs through to violence.
Anxious to show the 15 to18-year-olds where their behaviour will lead them, Mangere College recently took the group to visit ACRP - an experience their parents and the school believe had a profound and very positive impact on the students.
"I told them straight - there’s nothing glamorous or romantic about prison," Prison Manager Mack Herewini said. "It can be lonely, frightening and a dead end to nowhere for those not prepared to take advantage of the rehabilitation and reintegration opportunities provided."
"I discussed the choices people make, peer pressure, family support and what to expect when they to come to prison.
"We didn’t offer the students a tour of the prison but I could sense that every one of them was thinking deeply about what they had done wrong."
Mr Herewini says his management team and principal corrections officers also spoke to the students. The corrections officers explained what day-to-day life in prison involves. The unit managers encouraged the students to think about how their imprisonment would impact on their families - the shame it would bring upon them and their disappointment. They also touched on how the students' crimes impact on their victims which Mr Herewini says, "really seemed to hit home".
"Mangere College's decision to expose disaffected students to prison is imaginative and sound and I was pleased to be able to support the school. We're very keen to work with the community and I considered this a positive way for us to do so."
The school approached Corrections’ Pacific advisor for the northern region Asenati Lole-Taylor who once a week, discusses on air what’s happening within the Pacific community and how the community can work with Corrections to reduce reoffending and help released prisoners reintegrate back into the community.
Mrs Lole-Taylor’s position supports Corrections’ Pacific Strategy which aims to strengthen Corrections’ relationship with the Pacific community by being responsive and effective within it.
"Northern Region prisons acknowledge that we need community support to help us increase community safety so when I put the school’s request to our Northern Region prison managers Mr Herewini immediately put his hand up," Mrs Lole-Taylor said.
"Early this year ACRP hosted a group of expelled students from South Auckland who couldn’t find another school prepared to enrol them. That’s when Mack first became involved in hosting students at the prison. His work in this area is much appreciated and the feedback we’ve had from parents has been very positive."
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