Leading from the front issuu

CORRECTIONS VS
TE ARAROA
OFFERS HOPE
In 2018 when the Te Araroa Offers Hope hikoi
hit the trail between Bulls and Woodville, an
Iwi Policeman liked what the group was doing,
offering an alternative school. He walked
with them part of the way and a friendship was
formed that remains today. On the same trip the
crew met a woman who’d recently landed a job
at Corrections. Pat again explained what they
were doing, adopting Te Araroa trail as their
affordable Outward Bound, getting kids out of
town for a while, experiencing how the long trail
can enrich their lives, keep them out of trouble,
maybe even out jail. “I hope you’re not too successful,”
she said. “This is the first job I’ve ever
had and I love it.”
mendations?
There has been quite a lot going on behind the scenes
with the Justice ministries working together — Corrections,
Police and Justice. We made a strong point that
this consultation needs to be across government. It
needs to involve Education, Health, Mental Health, Oranga
Tamariki and MBIE. All these different agencies
need to get together on it or we’ll still end up with the
under-educated in jail. Basically we say this needs to be
started yesterday. It’s incredibly urgent.
The Justice system has been called broken so often
but there are a lot of people whose livelihoods
depend on it. Is this dependency preventing the
transformational change that is required?
In our public meetings we often heard that Corrections
had become the new Ministry of Works but what we
really need in Corrections and across relevant ministries,
are people who are totally engaged in keeping
people out of the system. Within Corrections we
see people with incredibly good will and the fantastic
pockets of excellence that operate across the board.
Corrections has had such a rapid rise in prison population
that it has needed to employ staff quickly, and has
taken people from all walks of life. Some of them are
there to make the world a better place and some of
them are there just to collect the pay packet, like any
other occupation.
Restorative Justice – for an unjust justice system 179