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Shane Te Pou: Māori-led prison reform signals welcome shift in Crown s thinking
26 Apr, 2021 05:00 PM
5 minutes to read
Inmates exercise at Waikeria Prison in Te Awamutu. Photo / Michael Craig
NZ Herald
OPINION:
I remember as if it were yesterday the beginning of my fourth form year at Kawerau High School. It was packed to the rafters, mostly with Māori kids like me; cheeky, full of life.
We weren t big into career planning at the time but, if you d asked, most of the boys would ve said we wanted, or at least expected, to follow in our dads footsteps – get a job at the mill, earn a good wage, build a family, make a life.
John Cowpland/Stuff
Inmates from Hawke s Bay prison s Māori focus unit Te Tirohanga welcome the Minister and his party. But if there’s one thing we all need, never more so than in prison, it’s hope. Ideally, the kind of hope that can assuage the most cynical of their scepticism. And chances are, most of the visitors leaving Unit 8 that morning were a little less sceptical than when they entered. That’s partly because the new programme, Māori Pathways, appears to address issues besetting similar culture-based programmes to date, and partly because the prisoners who undertake these culture-based programmes so evidently benefit from them.
Battle of the bands brings smiles to prison 19 Apr 2021 11:42 AM
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He was at the Northland Regional Corrections Facility on Friday for the battle of the bands. There are many talented musos in prison, sadly, and some amateurs as well who are very talented. They formed a couple of bands and had a play-off as well as a group made up of Corrections officers. Families came in including a lot of partners and mothers. It was wonderful to see people relaxing and laughing and enjoying the occasion, Mr Davis says.
Since Labour got in four years ago with a promise to reduce the prison population by 30 percent over 15 years, there are 860 fewer Māori inside, a drop of 16 percent.
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