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A Hawke’s Bay community leader says he’s disappointed with a new prison rehabilitation initiative.
Māori Pathways, launched yesterday at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison, is for inmates in the high security section who are most at risk of reoffending.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says it was designed as a partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu, and it also includes whānau ora-style navigators, specially-trained probation officers and three Ministry of Social Development case managers who will will help men and their whānau access social support and employment services.
Des Ratima, who sits on the Rangatahi Court in Hastings, says what he was hoping for was a programme where offenders can work with their whānau on a skills training plan which will be implemented in prison.
"I'm that disappointed with all the work we put it in for it to change and be like it is now. I notice they have employed people who have no idea of the heartbeat of communities, have no idea how to reconnect that individual with his family or community. Twelve months from now the figures won't have changed at all," Mr Ratima says.
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