Qualification: National Certificate in Offender Management.
Institution: Corrections Staff College, Upper Hutt. The qualification can be completed on the job.
Contact: Email: jobcorr@corrections.govt.nz, ph (04) 499 5620, website www.corrections.govt.nz
Starting salary: Corrections officers start on $41,615 on appointment; rising to $43,645 after eight weeks' initial training. Principal corrections officers can earn up to $65,467.
KEY POINTS:
While the key role of corrections officers is to maintain security within prisons, they also play an active part in offenders' rehabilitation, contributing to the prison service's goal to reduce re-offending.
New Zealand has 20 prisons, with about 4000 employees.
Some 75 per cent of these are custodial staff, including corrections officers, senior corrections officers and principal corrections officers.
Corrections officers need to be responsible, honest, have a mature outlook, common sense, a caring attitude and integrity.
They take a professional pride in their role and appreciate the importance of prison safety and security, while treating prisoners fairly and consistently.
Recruiters look for people who thrive in a team environment, remain calm in challenging situations and who can make sound judgment calls in fast-paced situations.
New officers undergo eight weeks' training to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to work safely in a prison environment.
Usually six of the eight weeks are spent at the Corrections Staff College in Upper Hutt.
THE GRADUATE
Walter Rurawhe, 39
Senior corrections officer at Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility, Manukau
Graduated May 2006
I've got a friend who works with the Corrections Department and he encouraged me to think about the job.
I did some research and found out what the job was about and what it had to offer for career pathways. I had aspirations of one day being in management. My friend had gone that way and I thought if he could achieve that, so could I. The job and training have been absolutely what I was expecting. Every day is different. There is not one day that I come in to work that I don't want to be here.
An overview of my job is that it is managing prisoners' daily activities, and role modelling so they can make better decisions upon release. We focus on their strengths that they can use in life.
I work a cyclic roster. Every week, we work five days out of seven.
Some weeks that will mean we have Saturday and Sunday off, and the next week we have Monday and Tuesday off so we end up with a four-day weekend. At the moment, I am doing an 8am to 5pm regime. We don't close down like other jobs, there has to be someone here all the time.
The training gives you tools to deal with stuff on a day-to-day basis.
We have ongoing training each week, as well. Our senior staff help us along. What stood out about the course were the friendships we built.
When we were put together as a group, we didn't know each other but, over the eight weeks, we formed close friendships and I consider them to be life-lasting. Before I did this job, I was working in community health, mainly with women, and that gave me a good insight of what I would be dealing with in this job.
That job was preventative health though, this is rehabilitation.
THE EMPLOYER
Jeanette Burns
Prison manager, Region Women's Corrections Facility
When we recruited Walter we were having a large recruitment drive to commission the whole prison. We were looking at 138 custodial officers to open by May 2006.
Walter was one of our first intakes. We took him because he had existing life skills, was a father, a trained teacher and had a great tool box of skills. Officers need a lot of common sense, we like to have a degree of life skills, not too young or inexperienced, to be honest, to have integrity, patience, a good sense of humour and a balanced approach to life.
They have to be firm and fair, have good negotiation skills and a good grasp of written and spoken English so that they can read and understand reports and write them, and be able to communicate.
We back all that up with training.
The qualification gives them a greater understanding of what is required in the role.
We are a very compliance-driven organisation and it can become a bit of a tick-the-boxes exercise.
The training gives them a deeper understanding of why we have to do this and we do it for safety.
It also adds an academic qualification to their personal toolbox and it positions them well to be able to advance through the corrections department. Walter has been appointed as a senior corrections officer.
He has done that very quickly.
He still has a lot to learn to be in that role and we will mentor him through that.
