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16th October 2009

“Today marks the 6th birthday of the prison system’s national faith based unit at Rimutaka Prison- He Korowai Whakapono- the cloak of faith” says Patrick Lewis, Prison Fellowship New Zealand’s unit manager, who has worked at the unit since its inception. “This is a Christian based Unit which works on dealing with heart issues, allowing men to start a journey of restoration towards their family, community and God. Since its commencement in 2003 we have made this into a therapeutic environment which encourages men to live with responsibility, integrity and accountability building better men, fathers and sons for the future.”

The idea for the unit was that of Kim Workman, previous national director of PFNZ, who worked for some 7 years to get the Department of Corrections to get the concept approved. “The Faith Unit was ahead of its time when it was established six years ago,” he said. “ It was the first of its kind in the Commonwealth. Research completed since its establishment, confirms what we knew – that it is not enough for offenders to discard their ‘offender’ identity in order to discontinue a life of crime. Ex-offenders need to step into a new identity; new values, new beliefs, and a transformed life. The Christian faith provides a “new set of clothes” for an offender motivated to change. A new body of criminological thought, known as “transformative theory” - confirms the validity of Prison Fellowship’s approach”.

“Prison Fellowship is currently working with the Department of Corrections to formally evaluate the Faith Based unit programme in order to determine its value in reducing recidivism”, says Robin Gunston, current National Director. “The Minister of Corrections has indicated to us that she is interested in looking at whether more such programmes should become part of mainstream rehabilitation and reintegration programmes in prisons, so such an evaluation will have valuable learning lessons for ourselves and the overall desire of the Minister to ensure that once prisoners leave they do not return. Our own research has shown that we are more successful than any other mainstream programme at getting men to desist from their previous ways, even though some of them may return to jail on technical parole matters or far lesser offences”, says Mr Gunston, “but getting that recognised can sometimes be an uphill battle !”

ENDS

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