A doctor of psychology who once did time for murder says putting phones and computers in cells is an "evidence-based approach" to reducing reoffending.
Paul Wood spent 11 years behind bars for murdering a drug dealer, but came out with a master's degree in psychology. He's since completed his doctorate, and now runs a consulting firm and works with troubled teens.
"One of the things that was in my favour was that I knew that study and education was an option," he said on TV3's Paul Henry programme this morning.
"I came from a family background where I went off the rails, but that implies that there were rails laid down in the first place, and I was aware of education as an option because I had family members who had pursued education as a part of their lives."
At 18, Dr Wood was an unemployed high-school dropout. His mother was dying of cancer, and he had turned to drugs to cope. Three days after his mother died, he killed a drug dealer.
A new prison opens today at Wiri, run by British firm Serco. As a part of its 25-year deal with the Government, Serco will receive bonuses if it can reduce reoffending – and this financial incentive is what's behind its decision to give each prisoner their own phone and computer.
"Let's be clear about this – Serco is not implementing this for humanitarian reasons," says Dr Wood.
"Serco is a profit-oriented organisation, and they're doing this because they have financial incentives tied in with reoffending, and this is an evidence-based approach to doing that.
"We know that education is really, really important in terms of reducing the likelihood people are going to go out and reoffend again. So many people in New Zealand's prisons are functionally illiterate and just don't even have the basic skillset to undertake a menial employment, let alone do something more meaningful."
It's not just Serco that stands to benefit financially if it can successfully reduce reoffending – each inmate costs the taxpayer more than $100,000 a year.
The plan hasn't come without opposition – the Sensible Sentencing Trust, which pushes for harsher, longer sentences – said it was appalling.
"My grandchildren are out selling firewood to pay for their computers to learn their computer skills in school," founder Garth McVicar told the New Zealand Herald. "Why not take a shortcut and wait until you've committed a crime and then you get it all on the taxpayer?"
But Dr Wood says giving inmates access to technology and the outside world, however restricted, won't reduce the level of "punishment" groups like the Sensible Sentencing Trust expect prisoners to suffer.
"The most punishing aspects of prison are the company you keep, for a start. You could be getting your dinner served on Royal Dalton with great silverware, but you've still got the Mongrel Mob prospects coming in to visit you in your cell, so I don't think that argument holds much water…
"Also, it's the lack of autonomy – you don't have the ability to make any day-to-day decisions. You have to go and ask someone if you can have toilet paper, you have to go and ask someone if you can have a razor, these types of things. These are really punishing components of prison. The separation from your family, absolutely, and what we know in terms of the research is that being able to maintain a connection with your family means you're more likely to be able to successfully reintegrate and less likely to reoffend."
Having spent more than a decade behind bars, Dr Wood says in his experience forcing dozens of men to use a single phone is the "biggest source of violence" in New Zealand prisons.
"There are normally queues for the phone, and what'll happen is – it was controlled, where people could make a call for 15 minutes and then it would cut them off. But you have people who are more capable of physical violence who will double-dip and make more calls, and it just reinforces this idea that might is right.
"The prison doesn't have the resources for guards to be policing the phones, so again it just teaches people and reinforces that idea that 'if I'm bigger and stronger than you, then I get my way'."
Serco has a financial incentive to keep violence to a minimum, with the Government able to fine it up to $600,000.
For some prisoners, being in Wiri might be the first time they've had consistent access to the kind of technology and information many of us take for granted.
"In order to make an informed choice, you have to know what your options are and then make a choice in line with the outcomes you want," says Dr Wood.
"Most people who end up in prison come from really deprived backgrounds where they're just not aware of the same options as say you or I might be in life."
3 News
source: newshub archive
