Books helping change offenders’ lives

Corrections is marking World Book Day this Friday (4 March 2016) by highlighting the significance of books in prisons as a positive activity which helps prisoners improve their literacy skills.

World Book Day is an international celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading. The aim is to encourage people to explore the pleasures of books and reading.

In prisons across the country, prisoners have access to libraries where they can find books to read for pleasure and to practise their literacy skills. Reading tastes are similar around the country. The most popular genres tend to be crime, thrillers, mysteries, historical and fantasy fiction and non-fiction books such as sport, music, biographies, cooking, self help and magazines. Favourite authors include David Gemmell, Lee Child and James Patterson.

Libraries are run by professional librarians with prisoners’ help.

“Prison libraries offer a valuable constructive activity and play an important role in developing prisoners’ literacy skills and their understanding of the world,” says Corrections Deputy National Commissioner Rachel Leota.
“Prison libraries also cater for prisoners with low literacy levels and offer some books with pictures.”
A large proportion of prisoners have low literacy levels. In order to help these prisoners engage with wider rehabilitation programmes on offer, Corrections provides a number of literacy programmes to help lift their ability.
“Low levels of literacy and numeracy among prisoners are some of the major barriers to higher educational achievement and finding sustainable jobs upon release,” says Rachel. “Helping prisoners improve their literacy and numeracy skills increases their employment opportunities once they return to the community and reduces the likelihood of re-offending.”

At Christchurch Men’s, Rolleston and Christchurch Women’s Prisons, prisoners and staff freely donate books and magazines to the library collection, as do the two local public libraries (Christchurch City Libraries & Selwyn Libraries) and the public. Items donated to Canterbury Prisons Library Service are placed in the library where they would be best used.

Since March 2015, prisoners at Arohata Prison have been involved in a book club. It was started by Corrections volunteers to provide women in prison with an opportunity to discuss and debate books in order to explore other worlds, and stay intellectually stimulated and engaged in wider society. They meet monthly to discuss a book selected as a group. The group has read 11 books so far includingThe Help by Kathryn Stockett and Trust: A True Story of Women and Gangs by Pip Desmond, among others. The club has recently joined the Book Discussion Scheme which is also operating atChristchurch Women’s Prison.

Over the past year there has been a considerable increase in the use of Hawkes Bay Regional Prison library by teenagers in the Youth Unit. Around 80% are now regular borrowers, devouring an average of five books per month, ranging from Tintin and Manga to novels such as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Every month, Waikeria Prison units receive pop up library displays containing a unique theme or category of book classification. These are hand picked by the library team based on popularity or current events and encourage prisoners to use the libraries by providing an interactive way for them to browse the books over the course of an evening and make a selection. It is an engaging way of involving prisoners in the library, encouraging them to learn and take part in a constructive activity.

Books and reading not only have significance to the prisoners themselves, but also act as an avenue for prisoners to connect with their children. At Otago Corrections Facility (OCF), a Storybook Dads programme, which runs in partnership with the Methodist Mission, reconnects families, builds the relationship between father and child, and encourages literacy in the whole family. The participants develop new literacy and numeracy, relationship and parenting skills, and knowledge about empathy, children’s behaviour and positive role modelling. The programme gives prisoners a safe environment to learn and practise these new skills. Previous participants of the Storybook Dads programme have found that after completing it they could read to themselves, understanding a lot more than before.

ENDS

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