Providing skills to break the cycle of offending

Address to launch of Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy

Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility, Manukau City

7 October, 9am

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Greetings and welcome to you all.

It gives me great pleasure to be here today as we launch the Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy 2009-2012.

One of the more disturbing statistics to come out of our corrections system is the alarming rate of recidivism.

Approximately 43 percent of prisoners - and 65 percent of prisoners under 20 - reoffend within a year of their release.

Within four years approximately 70 percent of released prisoners will have reoffended.

Some of these prisoners are simply bad, and nothing anyone can do will prevent them forging a career in crime and spending much of their lives behind bars.

But for many prisoners, reoffending is perhaps less a matter of choice than the result of them being poorly equipped to lead a law-abiding and productive life.

The skills they lack seem fundamental to the rest of us. Approximately 90 percent of prisoners have low literacy levels.

Many have never been trained in even the most basic of job skills. A slow economy and tight labour market will only exacerbate these handicaps.

This government has made it clear from the start that a key element of our Law and Order Policy is to ensure that prisoners leave prison with better skills than when they entered, with an aim to better equip them for life outside prison.

Our promise was to boost the number of prisoners learning industry based skills by 1000 prisoners by 2011. This strategy is an important step toward that goal.

By providing them with education, skills and work experience we equip prisoners with the tools to reduce the cycle of offending.

I would like to talk for a moment about why it is so important that we do this.

Last month the number if prisoners behind bars in New Zealand reached its highest level ever.

We have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world. It is not a statistic of which we should be proud.

Recently I visited Queensland - which has roughly the same population as New Zealand and could not be accused of being soft on crime.

It has a prison population of only 4500. We have 8500 behind bars.

This is a trend that cannot continue. The social and economic costs to the country are immense.

Pumping ever more people through our courts and locking ever more people in prison is not necessarily the way to build a better and safer society.

Certainly, the belief that they will be caught and punished is the greatest deterrent for criminals.

But at the same time we must be serious about addressing the causes of criminal offending and creating communities where crime is not accepted.

Reducing re-offending means fewer offenders commit crime after completing their sentence - resulting in fewer victims, a reduction in the cost of crime and safer communities.

The Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy is an important step towards this goal.

Broadly, the strategy has a stronger focus on education and training than its predecessor.

It seeks to deliver more opportunities for prisoners to engage with training and earn nationally recognised qualifications.

This government recognises that not every prisoner can be rehabilitated. However, for those who are willing to change we have a responsibility to support them and offer them every chance to do so.

Prisoner training and employment helps to keep prisoners focused, builds self esteem, and provides them with the chance to find sustainable employment on release.

This isn't being soft on criminals. It's being realistic about addressing the causes of reoffending for the good of the country.

This Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy will focus on expanding work-based training in prison industries, several successful examples of which you will see as you look around this facility today. 

The Department has been working to build strong relationships with Polytechs and Institutes of Technology, resulting in new practical training opportunities for prisoners.

This strategy provides for these relationships to be expanded, and for new partnerships to be established.

Literacy and numeracy training is a key focus for this Government. We have made a commitment to increasing the literacy and numeracy levels of New Zealand society as a whole, and this is no different for those in prison.

As most prisoners are released back into the community at some stage, it is essential that they have the literacy and numeracy skills that they need to function and play a positive role in society.

As part of this strategy the Department will be working to build stronger links with education providers to ensure prisoners can continue their literacy and numeracy training in the community.

Improving training and work opportunities for prisoners serving shorter sentences is another area of focus for this strategy.

There are significant numbers of prisoners that serve a sentence of 6 months or less.

Ensuring that they have access to training and employment will help them stay off the treadmill of offending.

Maori are also a high priority due to their over-representation in the prisoner population.

Maori have proportionally higher literacy and numeracy needs than other prisoners, as well as lower levels of work experience and qualifications.

This strategy will identify opportunities for Maori, and encourage more Maori prisoners to engage with work and training opportunities.

It also lays the framework for the Department to increase the number of fulltime equivalent student places offered to prisoners wishing to gain NZQA-recognised qualifications.

Alongside growing the relationship with Institutes of Technology and Polytechs, the Department will be adding another 125 places by 2012.

Too many prisoners are released into the community poorly equipped to find and hold down jobs.

I believe the strategy that is being launched here today will be a significant step in addressing that problem.

Prison is primarily a place where criminals repay their debt to society. But it also presents an opportunity to put bad habits behind them, to focus on a new way forward, and to re-enter society as a productive, law-abiding citizen.

When we release people from prison, we don't want to see them back.

I know that people joining us here today share this vision, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for working with us to provide invaluable work and training experiences for prisoners.

You are making a real difference.

Thank you.