Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Tommy Wilson: The moment the light came on

Bay of Plenty Times
4 Sep, 2018 06:49 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Tommy Wilson seeks to help inmates adjust to life on the outside. Photo / File

Tommy Wilson seeks to help inmates adjust to life on the outside. Photo / File

We all have light bulb moments in life.

Those moments where a switch is flicked on by someone telling us there is some way we can help a situation that sometimes we think is broken beyond repair - and is better left alone.

For me, it was an 8-year-old girl waving her hand at me and calling out my name while I was trying to teach one of my creative writing and reading courses at a local primary school.

"Mr Kapai, Mr Kapai!" she shouted enthusiastically, not willing to wait a moment longer.

Read more: Tommy Wilson: The good buzz on sports sponsorship
Opinion: Tommy Wilson - Trying a little tenderness in troubling times
Tommy Wilson: Save our whenua, before there's nothing else to protect

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I tried to raise the voice a few decibels and ignore the waving hand that by now had become busier than an auctioneers gavel trying to attract the attention of a potential punter.

Finally, I relented and asked her what was so important

"You taught my dad to read," she blurted out once she had my attention - and the attention of the rest of the class.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry, but I don't know your dad and I don't think I know your name either," I politely replied.

"Yeah ,yeah you know me, remember last year, you came to our school and you asked a question and I got it right, and you gave me a Kapai book, and I took it to my dada in jail, and he learned to read it, and I helped him, and if anyone touched my dada's book he gave them the bash, so yeah you taught my dad how to read just like us kids are learning now!"

That was my lightbulb moment.

Ever since then, I have been working out ways for how we as a community can connect with fathers, like that of the little 8-year-old, who have disconnected from their families and whānau while serving a sentence inside the wire.

Discover more

New Zealand

Home for ex-prisoners offers hope

04 Sep 06:30 PM

Tommy Wilson: Increasing acceptance of te reo

18 Sep 07:00 AM

Wilson: Blasey Ford is brave and impressive

01 Oct 10:33 PM

Tommy Wilson: Cruise ship cash cow must be carefully milked

12 Oct 04:29 AM

We all know the stats and we all know that what we are doing is not working when it comes to reintegrating our prison population back into our communities.

Currently, there are 10,260 inmates locked up in 18 prisons throughout the land of the locked up whanau.

Fifty-one per cent are Māori and what I found during my light bulb moment is many of these 51 per cent mirror the same set of circumstances as the homeless we are dealing with every day on the streets of our own backyards.

We all need somewhere to belong, somewhere to call home and a place to reconnect back to our families and whānau.

Currently in Tauranga, when you come out of prison and come home or come here to try to make a fresh start away from the troubled waters that got you locked up the first place, there is no bridge to walk across.

There is no one home for these men, many of whom are fathers to little girls like the 8-year-old putting her hand up for her dad.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

How could this be you may well ask, given it costs the taxpayer $100,000 per year to keep an inmate incarcerated and over a lifetime of offending – if these men are not reconnected to their whanau, they will cost the victims and taxpayers $3 million.

Right now their options are to go back to their gang pads or go back to reoffending and back to jail, leaving those who matter most waiting for visiting hours at the next new jail to be built.

The good news, and there is always a silver lining to a dark cloud, is if an inmate connects with their whānau while they are still inside, and then that connection is strengthened on their release, the chances of them reoffending and returning to the same old same old cycle of inside, outside, and inside again is dramatically reduced.

Surely this is something we, as a community, who want the best for those who want a place and a whānau to call home, can agree on and do something about?

Today, a group of us are doing just that.

At 11 minutes past 11 we will open the first "Whare For Freedom", a place where recently released can reconnect with the outside world and learn new coping skills to hopefully keep them out of a system that has a direct impact on 22,000 Kiwi kids who are affected by an incarcerated parent.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Two short years ago we opened our first homeless Whare For Whānau on a wing and a prayer and the generosity of some community kingpins who had a conscience and a few spare bob in their pockets.

Today we have 53 families safely housed in 15 homes and 12 motel rooms.

With the same challenges and sets of similar reconnection circumstances, we believe we can achieve the same outcomes for recently released low-risk prisoners.

All it takes is for someone to put up their hand like an 8-year-old at the back of the classroom and say "I care".

broblack@xtra.co.nz

Tommy Kapai first started working for the Bay of Plenty Times as a paperboy in 1961 and is now a columnist of 15 years. He is a best-selling author and executive director of Te Tuinga Whānau, a social service agency helping weave the community back together again.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Flooding closes BoP road, over 100mm of rain recorded

03 Jul 10:55 PM
Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Mortified': BoP Harbourmaster acts to prevent another Rena disaster

03 Jul 09:35 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Flooding closes BoP road, over 100mm of rain recorded

Flooding closes BoP road, over 100mm of rain recorded

03 Jul 10:55 PM

All heavy rain warnings have been lifted for the region, but more rain and hail possible.

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM
'Mortified': BoP Harbourmaster acts to prevent another Rena disaster

'Mortified': BoP Harbourmaster acts to prevent another Rena disaster

03 Jul 09:35 PM
New speed cameras to tackle high-risk BoP roads

New speed cameras to tackle high-risk BoP roads

03 Jul 07:55 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP