Basic work skills taught in sentences

Corrections national commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot said the skills they learn were intended to return offenders to the community. Photo / Duncan Brown

Hawke's Bay offenders are spending more time learning basic skills as part of their sentences, new figures show.

East Coast offenders from Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and surrounding areas have completed more than 500,000 community work hours since July 2012.

The number of hours decreased each year. Community work included activities such as painting, gardening, building, graffiti cleaning, restoration, recycling and the maintenance of public land.

The offenders completed a further 8000 hours of "basic work and living skills" training as part of their sentence. If an offender is sentenced to 80 or more hours, the court can authorise up to 20 per cent of the hours to be spent learning basic work and living skills.

Corrections national commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot said the skills were intended to return offenders to the community, lead them to live offence-free, and help them find jobs.

Sensible Sentencing Trust founder and Hawke's Bay resident Garth McVicar believed community work was effective for low-level offenders - but not violent or recidivist criminals. "It's good for low-level crime, particularly first time offenders as long as they learn from their experience and don't go on to be a career criminal. But a lot of the victims we work with are the victims of violent offences.

They find it offensive that [the offenders] only get community work."

Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Mike Williams believed community work was generally effective. "When you send someone to prison, you detach someone from their family and their community, and they learn really bad things. If someone can be yanked back on to the track with a community sentence, the Howard League would definitely support that."