Prison group defends employment scheme

A faith-based prison group is defending an inmate employment scheme that saw convicted sex offenders allowed out of jail to work on Hawke's Bay orchards over the weekend.

Prison Fellowship of New Zealand national director Kim Workman said today there needed to be debate about the value of prisoners working in the community.

Mr Workman's comments followed a report that 26 offenders were allowed out of prison to work at Hawke's Bay orchards over the weekend.

The inmates were accompanied by two guards, and they were sent to pick apples at two orchards as part of an inmate employment scheme.

The inmates were mainly sex offenders who the prison believed were not going to cause any problems, The Dominion Post reported today.

Mr Workman said that less than 15 years ago, about 20 per cent of the prisoners at Rimutaka worked daily in the community.

"They were released from the prison with good work habits, without a drug habit, good employment prospects, in some cases a trade qualification, and a future.

"They did not present a risk to the community and once released, contributed to the national economy. Employers and the public supported the scheme."

Today, the number of prisoners released to work is minimal, Mr Workman said.

"On the day that the Prime Minister calls on the nation to exercise tolerance and inclusion, we are freaking out because a group of prisoners are picking apples during a severe labour shortage."

Mr Workman said the apple picking proposal had more positive aspects than negative, such as:

* Low risk, compliant prisoners were given the opportunity to do real work, and contribute to the economy.

* They learnt good work habits.

* They got healthy exercise.

* Their drug use reduced, and they spent less time in a negative environment.

* They met a labour shortage.

* The employer was paying contract rates, which offset costs to the taxpayer.

Mr Workman said the work scheme was a step in the right direction, but the fellowship would like to see inmate earnings being paid into a Reparation Fund, which goes to their victims in compensation for harm caused.

"Ideally, the offenders should be made aware of the harm they have done to others, and realise that they are paying back the victim through their labour.

"The next question we should ask is 'how many of these offenders could safely be kept out of prison, and instead work for (say) six months in the community, paying for their crime through community service, with their earnings going back to the victim'?"

But Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesman Garth McVicar said the public would be horrified to learn of the secret work gang.

"And that's presumably why they're keeping it quiet," he told The Dominion Post.

Mr McVicar said sex offenders were very manipulative, cunning and dangerous and they were considered an ongoing risk to the public.

Prison officers' union the Corrections Association also criticised the scheme.

President Beven Hanlon - a guard at Hawke's Bay Prison - said the scheme took guards off the ordinary roster at a short-staffed jail.

- NZPA