The Power of Mothers: Releasing Our Children
by Celia Lashlie, HarperCollins, $36.99
Don't be fooled by the cover - this is not a book of parental advice - instead it is a look at crime, prison and the role of Child, Youth and Family (CYF) in New Zealand.
In the first half
of the book, Lashlie examines several case studies of high-profile young offenders and points out some home truths about how we, as a society, fail them, first through
CYF, then through a prison system that focuses on containment rather than rehabilitation.
It is a topic Lashlie knows intimately as the former manager of Christchurch Women's Prison.
The middle of the book, however, seems to lapse into a negative, political point-scoring ramble that is at times hard to follow and seems to lack the earlier coherency. The final chapters do a bit to redeem things with another case study - this time the moving story of a woman trying unsuccessfully to regain custody of her two small children from CYF.
As the mother of two boys, I own another book by Celia Lashlie - her well-known title He'll Be Ok.
This book talks about mothers needing to let go of their boys at a certain age and let the men in their lives take over - "releasing our children" - which is why I find this book's title slightly misleading.
However, overall this is a valuable and insightful book and will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in crime, CYF and the justice system.
As Lashlie points out, New Zealand's shockingly high imprisonment rate is something that affects us all, not only because of the huge financial burden but also the societal burden of generations of families trapped in a spiral of crime, poverty and abuse.
