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All stories from the Pacific

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• Papua New Guinea

Sycamore Tree Project® in the Community

Recently, the PF Australia chapter in New South Wales completed its first Sycamore Tree Project® pilot project in the community. This pilot worked with both ex-prisoners and offenders on community sentences. The offender participants volunteer for the programme because they are required to complete a certain number of prescribed courses as a term of their sentences. Sycamore Tree is only one in a range of courses.

Helping Prisoners and Communities Reconcile

In late 2007, PF Papua New Guinea (PFPNG) worked with the government’s Community Justice Liaison Unit (CJLU) to organise and support prisoners from Bomana prison through a reconciliation event in their home village.

New Zealand Faith-based Unit impacted by Lockdown

In late 2007, the New Zealand Department of Corrections implemented an extended time of lockdown for prisoners due to various staffing and budget constraints. In many prisons, including Rimutaka Prison housing the PF New Zealand Faith-based Unit, prisoners are locked in their cells from 5:00pm until 8:00am. While posing challenges to the activities of PF New Zealand volunteers in all programmes, the new lockdown policy offers unique problems for the faith-based unit.

Restorative Reintegration - A New Approach to Prisoner Aftercare in New Zealand

There are around 8000 prisoners currently in the prison system. There will be a further 1000 prisoners in the system by 2011. Around 9000 prisoners are released from prison each year. About 50% of all released prisoners will receive a Corrections reintegration plan on leaving. The remaining 4,500 will get their $350 and a bus ticket. The first 3 – 6 months is the crucial period for released prisoners. Many prisoners walk out of prison, determined to make a new start. The first 3 – 6 months are critical. They need help with housing, employment, debt management, and family and community relationships. If they get help from mentors and the community in the first six months, the chance of them reoffending drops by around 40%. If they face barriers, red tape, and stigmatization, it becomes difficult to keep on the straight and narrow. That is where Prison Fellowship comes in. Over the last four years, Prison Fellowship has developed a holistic approach to prisoner reintegration known as “Restorative Reintegration”

“Today I got to Speak”

Trembling from fear as they neared the massive prison, Fiona and Helen both felt the urge to just keep driving and avoid meeting the offenders who waited for them behind the gates. They were on their way to take part in PF Australia’s Sycamore Tree Project® (STP) at Acacia Prison near Perth in Western Australia.

Focus on Prisoner Reintegration

The PF New Zealand 2007 annual conference, When Prisoners Come Home… A Community Response to Prisoner Reintegration, highlighted the many issues surrounding a prisoner’s release from prison.

Rethinking Crime and Punishment

It’s a burgeoning problem that many may not even be aware of. The imprisonment rate in New Zealand has reached epidemic proportions—it is 164 per 100,000, double what it was in 1980 and now one of the highest in the world. The New Zealand Department of Corrections estimates that it costs $161.91 (NZD) per day for each prisoner, so the added prisoners result in an extra $141 million per year. And imprisonment does not seem to be changing the criminal behaviour of prisoners because 60 percent of all released prisoners re-offend within two years. As is the case in many countries, the issues surrounding crime and punishment are demanding new solutions.

Prisoners Donate to Fund for Victims

Furthering the reconciliation work that is initiated by the Sycamore Tree Project® (STP), Prison Fellowship Western Australia has set up a Victim Relief Fund that encourages prisoners to donate to crime victims.

Advocating for Victims’ Rights in New Zealand

On September 7, PF New Zealand representatives addressed the New Zealand Justice and Electoral Committee Inquiry into Victims Rights. The PF NZ team recommended that the government strengthen victims’ access to victim offender conferencing and victim offender panels.

Raising Community Awareness about Restorative Justice

Recently, Uvenama Rova of PF Papua New Guinea gave a presentation on restorative justice to a Women’s Fellowship Workshop of the United Church of Papua New Guinea.

New Zealanders Visit Europe to Explore Possible Prison Reforms

From 30 January to 7 February, PF New Zealand executive director Kim Workman joined a governmental team on a fact finding trip to visit prisons in the UK, Finland, and the Netherlands. Organized by the New Zealand Minister of Corrections, the fact-finding team spoke with government and corrections officials, prison reformers, and community providers exploring alternative offender management models.

Prison as a Place of Restoration

PF New Zealand has developed a programme bringing victims face-to-face with their offenders. Generally taking place in the prison setting, these safely-structured and facilitated meetings provide victims with the opportunity to tell their story and ask questions of their offenders. Offenders chance to learn how their crime truly impacted the victim and to express remorse for their behaviour. The following story illustrates the potential of victim-offender encounters to create a space for healing.

Lives in Transition: Proof of a Life Transformed

Lives in Transition is a 16-week intensive pre- and post-release programme operated by PF Australia (Victoria). In this article, Robert, a programme graduate, describes how the programme caused him to see the reality of his offending and to seek a meeting to apologise to his victim.

Observations of a Visitor—Sycamore Tree Project®

Prepared by Lynne Ridgeway of the Victim-Offender Mediation Unit who attended the final session of the Pilot Programme at Acacia Prison 2005.

Celebration of Healing: Report from the Sycamore Tree Project® – Pilot at Acacia Prison

28 people, both men and women, sit in a circle facing inwards. It is morning. Among them, dotted about in random fashion, are 9 men in green, the clothes marking them out as prisoners. We are in a large classroom, a cross and some stained glass windows identifying this as a chapel. The location - Acacia private prison - a loose block of buildings, 50 kilometres East of Perth, heavily fortified by razor wire indicating its maximum security classification. Around us are the living and working quarters of about 750 inmates (this is the largest of WA’s prisons) and a large number of security personnel. It is Friday 11th November 2005. There are smiles and an atmosphere of peace, confidence - even of joy - among those present.

Evaluating the Sycamore Tree Project®

In November 2005, Prison Fellowship New Zealand released a new evaluation of the effectiveness of the Sycamore Tree Project® (STP).

Sycamore Tree Project Impact Evaluation for Prison Fellowship New Zealand

Forty nine offenders completed an attitude to offending measure (CRIME_PICS II) before and after the Sycamore Tree programme showed significant changes on all scales in the expected direction. While the reduction in victim empathy was not as great as might be expected the changes were nevertheless significant.

Prison Fellowship of New Zealand: Sycamore Tree

Paper presented at the Just Peace? Peace Making and Peace Building for the New Millennium conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, 24-28 April. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Centre for Justice and Peace Development.

No Future without Forgiveness: The practice of Victim-Offender Reconciliation in NZ

In my presentation today I will speak about PFNZ’s work in prisons that focus on programmes and processes that address restorative justice values and principles.

A Consideration of the Sycamore Tree Programme and Survey Results from the Perspective of a Restorative Justice Practitioner

The Sycamore Tree Programme (STP), delivered by Prison Fellowship of New Zealand, is a restorative justice programme which brings together a panel of six inmates and six crime victims over eight two-hour sessions. The victims attending these meetings are not the particular victims of the inmates. The programme includes large and small group discussions, victim/offender interactions, role-plays, and readings that create a contemporary retelling of the biblical story of Zaccheus, a man who admits to his offending and sets about to restore to his victims what he has defrauded them of.