Prisoners have spoken out against violence towards women by hand-making 400,000 ribbons for White Ribbon Day, November 25.
People wear a ribbon on White Ribbon Day to show they will not commit, condone or remain silent about men's violence towards women.
Corrections Inmate Employment Manager, Brent Maughan, says it is the third consecutive year the Department of Corrections has assisted the Families Commission in preparing for the event, and the orders continue to grow every year.
"In 2005, the Department received an order for 50,000 which increased to 200,000 the following year and doubled again this year."
Fifty prisoners from Wellington Prison individually cut more than 40 kilometres of ribbon to size, folded them and pinned them to cards.
"Although the work is tedious it has provided prisoners with the opportunity to give something back to the community and reflect on the meaning behind the campaign," Mr Maughan says.
One prisoner says working on the project provided them with the opportunity to talk about alternatives to resorting to violence.
The Department operates a number of rehabilitation programmes for violent offenders and has a specialist treatment unit, which is the first of its kind in the world, located at Rimutaka Prison.
Mr Maughan says the project also provided prisoners with the opportunity to learn basic work skills that the majority of prisoners do not possess.
The last prison census indicates that 52 percent of prisoners had no formal qualifications and only 45 percent were in paid work before going to prison.
The prisoner also says one prisoner could not count, and as a team they taught him, starting counting to five, then 10 and up to 25.
"Research indicates that prisoners who find employment on release are less likely to re-offend and hence make our communities safer," Mr Maughan says.
The Department of Corrections, through Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE), aims to provide a range of initiaitives to improve prisoners' employment skills, training and formal qualifications whilst they are serving their sentence.
Employment and training activities are undertaken across a number of industries including horticulture, catering, farming, forestry, timber processing, furniture making, sewing, engineering, pre-cast concrete manufacturing, printing, laundries and light assembly.
These activities are available to prisoners through a variety of methods including prison-based business-like industries, on-the-job training, classroom based training with practical elements, supervised work parties and the Release to Work programme.
Mr Maughan says the Department is pleased to be able to support the White Ribbon campaign and looks forward to continuing to do so in the future.
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