There are a number of stages to what Prison Fellowship now considers to be appropriate faith based throughcare that will assist prisoners to live crime free lives:

Assessment

In For the throughcare scheme to have the maximum impact on the lives of individuals who wish to change and live crime free lives it is important that individuals are selected that will make the most of the 3years or so they could be spending on the scheme. Prison Fellowship in conjunction with Corrections Case Officers, Case Managers and the Prison Chaplains work together promoting and assessing men , mainly from North Island prisons in the last year of their sentence, to come into this positive Christian therapeutic community at Rimutaka Prison. Our aims are that our clients:

• Commit to the 7 values of the unit

• Achieve a positive attitude and positive values through spiritual transformation;

• Treat each other with respect, and demonstrate empathy and compassion for other prisoners, for their families, and for their victims;

• Are motivated to change their behaviour. They are more likely than other prisoners to attend rehabilitative programmes, to change their behaviour, and to set positive goals for the future;

• Take personal responsibility for the harm they have done to others, and take steps to restore relationships with their victims, with family, and with the wider community, through seeking forgiveness, love and reconciliation;

• Reintegrate successfully with their families/whanau and the community on release, through a combination of community accountability and support

• Demonstrate reduced offending behaviour.

The Faith Unit - He Korowai Whakapono

In October 2003 the 60-bed faith unit opened at Rimutaka Prison, near Wellington. In a unique partnership between the Department of Corrections and Prison Fellowship New Zealand, the Department provides the custodial staff, and Prison Fellowship ran the Christian development programme focussed on reintegration needs
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Twenty percent of all offenders who enter prison identify that they have a spiritual need. This unit provides an opportunity for inmates to explore the Christian faith, and to surround themselves with Christian support on release.

The programme was developed in consultation with representatives of the mainstream Christian denominations. It is an interdenominational strategy, involving church members as teachers and facilitators. The spiritual transformation program focuses on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The faith ethos is reflected in a spiritual transformation programme that takes around 9 months to complete, a prayer-centred daily routine, and regular worship and study with teachers and facilitators from local churches

In addition men work in the prison nursery, attend education courses, work outside the prison if at all possible on the work gang with councils, churches etc

A vast range of additional community input is available to the men to socialise them including Family Restoration days, Te Aro Pono, arts , music etc

Clients are confronted with the harm they have done to others, and challenged to restore relationships with their victims, with family members and the wider community. That in turn motivates them to address the behaviour which triggers offending, including violence, drug and alcohol abuse and other inappropriate behaviour.

Reintegration
A major component of the time in the unit concentrates on planning for men’s eventual release from prison back into the community. Every man develops his own personal reintegration plan with our staff and may be assigned a mentor from a Target Community if that is the route he wants to follow.

Re-entry
When the time comes for a man to be released work is done to prepare him for the final Parole Board hearings if he is to be paroled, and to check all other factors are in place. Re-entry is very complex and everything needs to be as right as possible to avoid failure after all the hard work everyone has put in place.

Aftercare
We work with many other agencies to ensure that a man’s aftercare is suitable for his needs, and that if being locally accommodated he has all the necessary things in his apartment/living place. Accommodation is the most difficult area to get right as NZ has a huge deficit of suitable halfway and sheltered housing.

Maintenance
As part of building a bond between former clients and getting them to care for one another Prison Fellowship organises ,monthly “maintenance” meetings where men give testimony, eat kai, and talk about where they are on their journey to crime free lives.

Celebration
A core part of our throughcare ethos is celebration when men achieve their crime free goals- this is an area that is gradually being developed as more men graduate from faith based throughcare.


Our stories:

Mr X
Mr Y
Mr Z

Click below to download a PDf brochure on the Faith Based Unit

Click below to download answers to frequently asked questions about "Faith Based Throughcare"