Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ian Hutson: Salvation Army Mission Officer on the report finding secure housing is key to reducing reoffending

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Ian Hutson: Salvation Army Mission Officer on the report finding secure housing is key to reducing reoffending · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Forty three percent of prisoners back in jail within two years.
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  Speaker 1: In New Zealand, two thirds commit new crimes within two years.
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  Speaker 1: The Salvation Army report out this morning blames housing. Ian
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  Speaker 1: Hudson's Salvation Army mission officer with me, Ian, good morning,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, to be with you. Is that number getting better?
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  Speaker 1: We are more I've just got a text here from Graham,
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  Speaker 1: says Ryan. In the eighties, I remember from experience, the
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  Speaker 1: recidivism rate was around eighty percent.
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't know how far back it would be at
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  Speaker 2: that level, but this has been quite whatever level it
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  Speaker 2: used to be. This is very high world by world standards,
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  Speaker 2: and it's been pretty stable. It hasn't gone up or
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  Speaker 2: down much for we've been doing these reports State of
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  Speaker 2: the Nation reports now for about twenty years. It's not
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  Speaker 2: gotten any better, and we've got one of the highest
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  Speaker 2: imprisonment rates in the world, and we just think it's
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  Speaker 2: time to try and do something to bring those numbers down.
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  Speaker 1: You're saying housing is a big problem, that when they
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  Speaker 1: get out they don't have a good house to go to,
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  Speaker 1: the more likely to commit crimes. As a result. You
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  Speaker 1: said that we are doing worse on this measure than
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  Speaker 1: other countries. Are other countries doing better with housing?
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  Speaker 2: Yes they are. I mean the issues that people in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand face when they leave prison is that they
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  Speaker 2: don't have any access to landlords when they're trying to
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  Speaker 2: arrange for leaving prison obviously, I mean when you're inside,
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  Speaker 2: you don't have that access, you're unlikely I mean landlords
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  Speaker 2: would have some degree of not wanting to take you anyway,
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  Speaker 2: and then released very often or too often without any
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  Speaker 2: ID so they can't get access to MSD money, so
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  Speaker 2: they don't have enough money to put up for bond
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  Speaker 2: or any of those kinds of things. And so basically
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  Speaker 2: when they are when they're set free, if you like,
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  Speaker 2: they end up with three hundred and fifty dollars of
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  Speaker 2: what's called the Steps to Freedom grant, which isn't really
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  Speaker 2: much good to get you into any kind of decent housing.
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  Speaker 2: And what we've discovered, well, the things that we've seen.
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  Speaker 2: One of the reports that was done by the University
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  Speaker 2: of Auckland study had over one hundred people that they
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  Speaker 2: looked at. They found that people that didn't get good
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  Speaker 2: or stable housing were four point six times more likely
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  Speaker 2: to re offend than those who had stable housing. So
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  Speaker 2: that's kind of what we're aiming at to try to
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  Speaker 2: bring that.
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  Speaker 1: I understand. And the other problem you've got is when
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  Speaker 1: they're in prison, are they being rehabilitated? What percentage of
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  Speaker 1: them actually want to be.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's quite a low percentage of people that get
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  Speaker 2: any kind of help well are in prison, and.
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  Speaker 1: So how many wanted that's well, it's pretty.
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  Speaker 2: Hard to estimate that. What I do know is that
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  Speaker 2: quite a few people when they leave prison actually want
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  Speaker 2: to turn their life around. I mean, they don't want
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  Speaker 2: to end up back there. And what we see, as
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  Speaker 2: you mentioned in the introduction, that forty three percent of
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  Speaker 2: prisoners end up back in prison. And I mean I
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  Speaker 2: remember visiting prison sometime back and one of the workers
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  Speaker 2: there describing the way that she saw young men leaving
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  Speaker 2: prison and then she saw them in the community and
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  Speaker 2: they were so excited leaving, wanting to you know, looking
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  Speaker 2: forward to it, and then.
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  Speaker 1: The hope it turns to custard once they get out.
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  Speaker 1: Ian appreciate your time this morning in Hadson Salvation Army
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  Speaker 1: Mission Opposite. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
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