KEY POINTS:
The website of the prison bureaucracy, the Corrections Department, lists an array of programmes aimed at making prisoners less likely to reoffend.
There are those aimed at addressing violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and a lot that come under the heading "Maori culture" and are aimed at motivating Maori inmates to pursue change.
To use the jargon, the courses try to address the inmates' "criminogenic needs", in other words the factors within an individual that make him a higher re-offending risk.
These include substance abuse, difficulties dealing with emotions and a failure to appreciate the consequences of offending behaviour, which likely includes lack of empathy.
Other problems, such as mental illnesses and low self-esteem, are not generally associated with re-offending and so are not usually targeted, says Katrina Casey, general manager of probation and offender services.
Convicted murderer Graeme Burton did courses, in particular one aimed at changing violent ways.
He got credit for that in the eyes of the Parole Board, which released him in July, but if he had indeed made a change, it didn't appear to last. He's back in jail, facing a range of violence charges, including murder.
To try to gauge whether the course has been successful for a particular inmate, Corrections conducts a clinical interview of the inmate before and after the course as well as "structured questionnaire measures".
Casey acknowledges there are shortcomings in any assessment of whether genuine and lasting change has occurred and ultimately only time tells.
It's a fraught area, says Kim Workman, the liberal former Deputy Secretary of Justice who now heads the Prison Fellowship which runs a Christianity-based programme at Rimutaka Prison.
Some psychometric tests may give an indication of a change of attitude, says Workman, but whether that transfers into changed behaviour and whether that endures depends on so many factors.
For one, once the prisoner finishes the programme he is returned to prison and its culture.
"The culture of prison is a macho environment. If you are trying to address violence, those people who are the most violent and dangerous tend to be at the top of the pecking order and so, to change, the person has to be prepared to take another position within the hierarchy and that is difficult."
If drug abuse is the problem, the inmate faces the availability of drugs and quite possibly the expectations of other inmates to continue using.
Likewise, if they associate after release with people involved in crime and drugs, they are more likely to return to jail.
"What you try to do in prison is dissociate them from people who are disposed to criminality and build them into communities of men who are struggling but are prepared to talk about how they want to change, what's created the change, whether it is that they have fallen in love with a fabulous person, that they see their kids are likely to end up in prison or because they have a relationship with God, or want to be more engaged in their cultures."
It takes a strong commitment but it is possible, says Workman. Often when a person comes into prison they hit rock bottom and are most amenable to change.
"They try to make sense of their lives, they question their own identity, they are shamed by their actions and so they look for some other meaning to their life, to redefine who they are.
"If you provide an opportunity for people to redefine who they are, whether through art or music or education or faith or culture, then that becomes the support structure [for change].
"It's not [so much] about the will but about having a support system or belief system of some kind that makes sense for you.
"But there is a group who are psychopathic, who are known within the prison to be dangerous ... and there's always a group who have a facade, who are superficial in their beliefs and over time they get identified as well."
If they are savvy and familiar with the process, such people might be able to tailor their answers to fool the psychometric tests for a period.
But a significant group of high-risk offenders can and want to change, he says, and for that reason society needs to resist knee-jerk cynicism, concluding that "it's all bull, it's only talk and change will never happen".
It is hoped the positives learned from the various programmes will be reinforced by prison officers, volunteers and those who run the programmes, "so they are not abused by these staff and are not expected to do the same back".
That may not be the case at Rimutaka, from where Burton was released, according to Andy Coward, a British prison officer who worked at the prison last year.
He told the Weekend Herald staff routinely used abusive language, including racial slurs, and were disrespectful in interactions among themselves.
As an indication he gave the Weekend Herald a copy of this email, written by a prison unit manager to a subordinate regarding a minor matter: "HEY NUMBNUTS ... DON'T WRITE SHIT IN THE LOCK UP BOOK. THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S THERE FOR. JACKASS."
Such a culture undermines the good work done by Corrections to identify inmates motivated to change and has to be stamped out, says Workman.
Workman is an advocate of an approach that tries to change behaviour by working with the person's strengths rather than weaknesses.
"I think the department has acknowledged that their programmes that are based on behavioural, or criminogenic needs, have not worked well.
"These programmes became the 'in' thing about 15 years ago, beginning in Canada and were picked up quickly in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the United States.
"Many of those places have abandoned those programmes because they don't seem effective."
"We are not talking here about complex needs people, the serious sex offenders, those with serious drug and alcohol problems but the rest.
"A lot respond better if you say to them, 'I'm not accepting that you are dependent or are needy. I'm assuming you are a human being who has the will and potential to change and that you have talents and we are going to focus on those talents and turn you into a useful citizen'.
"Prison is tremendously stigmatising for them and their families and so what we have is lots and lots of guys who don't feel they can be part of the community when they leave.
"That is extremely difficult for them to overcome."
It requires strategies that encourage and support them but also that holds them directly accountable and confronts them with the need to change their mindsets.
"The two aren't inconsistent. It's not about shaming people, it's ensuring they understand the harm they have caused and then building them back into the community.
"If you do that well then their children are also built back into the community and we are able to finally break the cycle."
