Many were young Maori heading for a jail sentence.
The prison literacy programme is now running in most jails and the Hawke's Bay driving offenders' programme has spawned two similar programmes in West Auckland and Whangarei, both of which have long lists of offenders lining up for the attention of our tutors.
One of the barriers to the growth of the prisoner literacy programme is that many prisoners see the inability to read and write as a matter of shame and simply don't put themselves forward for tuition and assistance.
Judith Collins as Corrections Minister upgraded the tests prisoners receive on coming to jail so we now know that 70 per cent plus of prisoners are functionally illiterate meaning they cannot read and write well enough to comprehend essential texts like the Road Code or employment contracts.
Last year a supporter suggested that we'd get many more takers for the literacy programme if we offered tuition in the Maori language.
As more than half of New Zealand's prisoners identify as Maori, this is a very sensible suggestion.
The problem we encountered is the shortage of te reo teachers.
A survey of the 600 plus names on our tutor database showed that we had very few Maori speakers, but a large number who would be prepared to learn the language.
At that point I recalled that I began learning French at Hastings Intermediate School in Miss Pedersen's class and that Miss Pedersen learnt the basics of the language at the same time as the pupils with the aid of a textbook and a set of tape recordings.
It certainly worked for me as a starting point and I went on to study French at Karamu High School and Victoria University.
I consulted some Maori mates and was pointed in the direction of a new publication Maori Made Easy written by Scotty Morrison, who is better known as the Te Karere presenter on TV1.
This is an excellent publication based on the concept of self-learning te reo Maori in manageable bites.
Having decided on a trial te reo Maori course at the Auckland South jail, we found a tutor with an interest in languages who was prepared to facilitate a collaborative learning environment with seven men working together and in smaller groups with the text book and Maori language dictionaries.
Six months into the programme, the whole exercise is a stunning success and late last year we were fortunate to welcome Scotty Morrison who made himself available for pronunciation practice.
I was truly remarkable to hear the seven students speaking their heritage language with real confidence to the point that Scotty made a comment that the men must have had the language "in their genes" before they started.
A major benefit of this programme is the vastly improved self-confidence and self-image that the prisoners have developed during the programme. I noted at the start of the programme many in the group were withdrawn and unable to meet your eye.
This is no longer true of anyone in the te reo class.
It is also worth noting that though the participants belong to a variety of gangs that are normally kept separate in the jail, gang affiliations are by common consent, left at the door.
Such is the obvious value of this programme, the Howard League will be rolling it out to any jail for which we can find a tutor/facilitator and that already includes Hawke's Bay Jail.
Because our te reo students are prisoners and can't go on line to hear the correct pronunciation of the language they are learning, we need te reo speakers to help with this aspect of our initiative.
If you can help, email me on mike@mikewilliams.co.nz .
I'm told our tutors love the experience and there's a lot of laughter when they meet their pupils.
If Ministers like Nanaia Mahuta and Kelvin Davis want to accelerate the revival of te reo Maori, here's one way to do it.
Here is large and willing captive audience with plenty of time to do the work necessary to master te reo, and the benefits in terms of self esteem are huge.
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
