The social integration of Māori prisoners

Abstract

Kei ngā rangatira, e ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā maramara kohinga o te ao, tēnei ka mihi! Tēnā Koutou, tēnā tātou katoa!The preparation of this paper, was stimulated by memory of an incident that happened within our hapū in the 1950s. The Secretary/Treasurer of a local marae (let’s call him Anzac) was discovered to have defaulted with the entire building fund, a not inconsiderable sum. He had been having dreams about which horses were going to win the following Saturday, and persuaded himself that this was an easy way to increase the fund. After about six months, he realised that they were not horses, but nightmares. The horses were still running, but the building fund was no more. In repentance, he handed himself over to the Police, and served three months in Mt Crawford Prison.It was what happened next that was interesting. On his return home, the local marae committee held a pōwhiri (a welcome home) ceremony, celebrated with a hākari (feast), and immediately reinstated him as Secretary/Treasurer of the Committee. The local pākehā were astounded, and in some cases, outraged. We were referred to as ‘those stupid Māori’. In response to the generosity and grace of his whānau and hapu, the ex-offender gave up his job, worked his guts out fundraising and had the building fund restored to its original level within a year.

He Whakamāramatanga mo te Taihara: A Cultural-Ecological Perspective of Agency and Offending Behaviour

“…Legislation, such as the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907, made illegal many of the practices making up daily life for Māori (e.g., traditional healing methods), which further contributed to disenfranchisement, misappropriation, and marginalisation (Katene & Mulholland, 2011;Nakhid & Shorter, 2014). Significantly, during colonisation, justice processes shifted from a restorative model towards a more retributive, punishmentbased orientation (Brittain & Tuffin, 2017;Workman, 2014), and then followed the rest of the world in adopting the use of psychological rehabilitation in order to reduce incidences of reoffending (Bonta & Andrews, 2017). In other words, Western legal categories and justice processes were introduced and enforced via colonisation, and these reflected the values and norms of the dominant Pākehā culture.…”

Inequality Beyond the Wall: The Effects of Incarceration on Long-Term Earnings and Employment

“…The wider effects of incarceration on Māori communities are exacerbated by the high rates of imprisonment for both men and women. The concentration of incarceration within particular neighbourhoods and communities has a destabilising effect, weakening social connections through the frequent removal of people to prisons, particular for large proportions of the Māori male population (Ministry of Justice, 2019;Workman, 2014). Although Māori women's incarceration rates are much lower than men's, they are still disproportionately high, particularly when compared to Pākehā/European women.…”

“…This includes disrupting the perpetual cycle between prisons and marginalised neighbourhoods. As Workman (2014) argues, a different approach is needed to support the social integration of formerly incarcerated Māori. This includes recognition of Māori cultural practices and perspectives, and an emphasis on the restoration of balance within whānau and communities, rather than responses which further generate the conditions for offending and incarceration.…”