Claim women off prison Xmas card list due to 'stonewalling'

The Prisoner Correspondence Network say there’s been a lack of support to get their pen pal scheme established in women’s prisons, and that this goes against Corrections’ Hōkai Rangi strategy.  

It's a busy time of year for the Prisoner Correspondence Network (PCN), with their annual holiday card drive taking place around Aotearoa. People across the community write messages in more than 1700 Christmas cards, each addressed to an incarcerated person who has signed up to their pen pal service.

Spokesperson Emilie Rākete says that the events draw in a wide cross-section of people, from those sharing their prison abolitionist ethos, to church groups, to gay youth groups, to people passing by off the street, united by a common aim of spreading some festive cheer at a time of year that can be particularly challenging for those in prison. 

Jude attended the Wellington event and wanted to let the person she was writing to know there was someone thinking of them on the outside, with the reality of a prison Christmas front of mind while she wrote.

''I know that they are usually able to enjoy some Christmas food and some goodies, but I also know that it must be incredibly painful not to be able to be with people that you love and your family.''

PCN shares some of the feedback from those who have received cards, on their Instagram account, such as this message from Allan.

''Kia ora PCN Team,

I would like to express my utmost gratitude for all of the cards & warm words the cards really did pick me up & made me feel like someone cared, & helped me through a low period that I was feeling. What an awesome service you provide, wonderful wonderful people who take the time to write to us who are incarcerated. The service yous are providing is love with work clothes on. Im very grateful. Best wishes for 2022.

Arohanui ki a koutou

Allan''

The cards are part of more than 20,000 pieces of correspondence exchanged between people inside and outside prison each year through PCN's pen pal scheme.   

People Against Prisons Aotearoa runs PCN, and as a prison abolitionist organisation, has strong views about what they consider to be the failings of the criminal justice system.

''We think that prisons are not an effective way of solving social problems, that they isolate people, and that they make all the things that they’re meant to fix, worse.'' Rākete said.

She says the PCN is a way to repair the relationships between incarcerated people their communities, and ultimately better equip the person inside to reintegrate once they’re back outside.  

''They’ve been taken away from, in many cases, everyone who they know. And sent to a place which is alienating, which is intensely rules bound, which is often quite violent, and where there are very few opportunities to form positive person-to-person relationships... But the PCN can help to facilitate positive human interactions.''

PCN was set up in 2016. The numbers of incarcerated people signed up fluctuates, but Rākete says currently there are about 600 on their list, out of a total prison population of 7492 men and 472 women.

''There's obviously a huge need for these kind of relationships…We're not like a small thing that a few people care about. We're one of the main ways that incarcerated people communicate with their communities on the outside,'' Rākete claims.  

The pen pal scheme operates in all men's prisons in Aotearoa, where it has spread through word of mouth. But, as the populations of the three women's prisons (Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility, Arohata Prison, Christchurch Women's Prison) are much smaller (the smallest being Arohata prison with just 84 prisoners), PCN has struggled to get the network up and running for women, with none currently active.  

In 2020, PCN emailed the prison directors of each of the three women's prisons (emails since shared with 1News) asking for help to establish the network by promoting it on the inside and printing and distributing sign-up forms to women interested in getting involved. PCN claims to have received no responses from the three prison directors. 

1News has been shown an email chain between PCN and a case manager inside one of the women's prisons, who in March 2020 offered to speak to the prison director about supporting bringing PCN into the prison, but after several replies, communication ceased in September 2020.  

When asked why Corrections had not responded to PCN's request for support, a media spokesperson told 1News that the current prison directors at the three women’s prisons were not in their roles in 2020 and have no record of any requests to promote PCN. They encouraged PCN to contact the current prison directors '"who can consider their request in line with our processes."

A statement was provided from Neil Beales, chief custodial officer, further outlining these processes.

''It is critically important for people in prison to have opportunities to form and maintain connections with people in the community, and we welcome community-led initiatives that help us facilitate this. 

''However, our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of people in prison and the public…All requests to promote or facilitate an externally-run initiative in prison are therefore considered in line with our standard processes, to ensure that they can operate safely,'' Beales said. 

Beales stressed the value of positive relationships for prisoners, and stated that Corrections' prisoner mail system (which PCN utilises) helps to build and maintain positive relationships. 

''However, prisoners commonly attempt to use the mail system to threaten people, contact their victims, intimidate and manipulate people into providing money or contraband, and engage in inappropriate sexual activity.

''To keep people safe, we monitor mail and can make decisions to withhold it on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the Corrections Act 2004. We would need to ensure a pen pal service could operate safely before promoting it to prisoners,'' Beales said. 

The Corrections media spokesperson noted that they regularly receive requests from PCN regarding the location of prisoners, and that they provide this information if the prisoner consents. 

PCN has since attempted to use contacts within the prison system to spread the word, partly because of a lack of access due to Covid-19.

Ara Poutama Aotearoa – the Department of Corrections - launched their new strategy Hōkai Rangi, in 2019. It has a stated aim of addressing the significant over-representation of Māori in the corrections system, and its key strategic areas identified for change include ''Incorporating a Te Ao Māori worldview,'' and ''Whakapapa''.

Rākete claims the purported lack of support promoting the network goes against the strategic plan.

''Hōkai Rangi specifically states that incarcerated people have a right to maintain their whakapapa and their social relationships to the communities... Supporting PCN is a simple, obvious, easy way that the Department of Corrections could facilitate those relationships.''

The statement from Beales noted that Corrections provides ''a range of ways for people in prison to keep in touch with people in the community, with a focus on supporting them to maintain contact with their whānau and people they have existing pro-social relationships with.'' 

Examples given were letters, emails, access to phones, regular visits, video calls and specific initiatives for prisoners with children. 

When asked whether she thought PAPA’s abolitionist stance might be impacting Corrections’ willingness to collaborate, Rākete said, ''It’s hard to say because Corrections have been stonewalling us so effectively from the beginning. I’d love to have that feedback. 

''It’s not 20,000 pieces of mail from me, or from PAPA going in every year. It’s 20,000 pieces of mail from your neighbour down the street, from your priest, from school groups, from all kinds of people.''