Most inmates respond well to rehabilitation programmes

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Re: Fixing Corrections, April 18 letter.
We were interested to read Pauline Tangiora’s letter to The Gisborne Herald recently.
We both teach literacy and numeracy in a North Island prison under the umbrella of the Howard League, and agree with Pauline that rehabilitation programmes will have more benefits to the inmates than further punishment. We have personally witnessed men go from shy introverts who have been told all their lives that they are useless, to confident men, looking forward to getting a job when they are paroled or released, rather than being returned to prison. 
As always, there are good and bad, successes and failures. But from what we have seen, we believe that the majority of inmates will respond well to a bit of tutoring and positive encouragement.
Let’s at least try. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but we do need to revitalise the programmes mentioned by Pauline Tangiora, and have more volunteers to put those programmes into practice.

Belinda and Hugh de Lautour