Inmates at Hawke's Bay Prison are being offered the chance to complete sentences of an altogether different kind.
A new literacy initiative, spearheaded by Karamu High School old boy and former Labour Party president Mike Williams, had the potential to redress our "sky-high re-offending rate".
"Bar the USA, we have the highest incarceration rate in the western world," Mr Williams said. "And of those in prisons, 50 per cent are young Maori blokes, and 50 per cent are illiterate."
Wearing his hat as chief executive of the New Zealand Howard League for Penal Reform, Mr Williams set about addressing the link between literacy and recidivism.
"If you can't read and write you won't even get work on a construction site these days.
"We're hoping to provide at least basic reading and writing skills and also get some companies interested in employing these people once they're out."
He said a stronger bond between prisoners and their children also curbed re-offending.
"If you ask a room full of prisoners 'who wants to learn to read and write', you won't get much response," Mr Williams said. "But if you ask if they'd like to be able to read a book to their children, the hands start going up. Reading to children improves their relationship with their children, and hopefully means they don't want to spend any more time in jail away from their kids. The big thing is giving them a reason to do it.
"Teaching English could potentially save taxpayers the $92,000 it costs to keep one prisoner in jail per year."
A Hawke's Bay teaching volunteer and former literacy lecturer, who did not wish to be named, helped develop the programme dubbed Parents as First Teachers. Her pilot programme run in Hawke's Bay Prison already boasted a success story in the form of a young father in his 20s.
Her student, who was almost through his 12-week programme and still on remand, had made great progress since beginning with picture books.
"For many it's about reviving the skills they've been taught in the past," she said. "Some are just out of practice."
The program involved reading out loud, punctuation, grammar and then moving to writing.
"One of the great things he [student] said to me was that he was doing this because he didn't want his son to end up in here."
The team were now hoping to recruit 20-30 former teachers who could commit to a 12-week programme.
To volunteer visit www.nzhowardleague.org.nz or call (09) 834 8100.