Prisoners' Aid & Rehabilitation Society AGM

I greet everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the morning and the sun has risen (Sign)

May I specifically acknowledge you: Jessie Thompson, National President of the Federation of New Zealand Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation Societies; John Whitty, Retiring National Director; Temple Isaacs, Kaumatua - Kaihautu o Ngati Porou; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and I to attend the Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Federation of Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Societies - as the organisation celebrates as many as 130 years' of service.

I speak this morning as Governor-General but also as one who, in a varied career, has had much to do with prisoners and the Prisoners Aid & Rehabilitation Society. 

That contact has varied from being a Crown prosecutor, conducting interviews to prepare a briefs of evidence after incidents in prison, to working as a defence lawyer interviewing remand clients in which role the interview areas at the Mt Eden and Paremoremo prisons, in particular, became familiar.

Later still as a Judge saw time as a Visiting Justice in a number of settings, service as District Prison Board chairman and a three year term at the beginning of the 1990s as Deputy Chairman of the National Parole Board.

Finally, as an Ombudsman the role called for action as a New Zealand made prison complaints authority, dealing with complaints from prisoners about their treatment in prison.

In each of these roles, to which I have referred I was aware of the presence and continuing work of PARS workers and volunteers.

I have registered the view on another occasion to a gathering of this Society that in my view the Ombudsman role was akin to that of the PARS worker—in the sense of being there to do the job regardless of the person's past or kind of crime.  An Ombudsman's relationship with individual prisoners is different from any other government agency.  For example, the Office of the Ombudsmen remains one of the few places an inmate can write to and not have their letter opened by prison staff before being mailed.

Your Society, with the establishment of the Patients' and Prisoners' Aid Society in Dunedin in 1877, is one of the oldest social service agencies in New Zealand.  Since that time PARS has worked assiduously to reduce offending by providing support and reintegration services to offenders and their family and whanau.  Much is well documented in Margaret Tennant's booklet, Through the Prison Gate, which marked 125 years of PARS operation.

With 40, mainly part-time employees, and some 500 volunteers, PARS provides one-on-one support to individual prison inmates, caring for a section of our society that is often shunned.  That care extends not only to the inmate but also to their wives, partners and children, who often suffered heavily during the prisoner's time inside.

I would like to offer two short quotations from the book which demonstrate how long and how vital PARS work continues to be.  100 years ago there is the following from page 34:-

"[Edwin] Arnold  working 100 years ago and in Wellington, used these occasions to make contact with the offenders.  He counselled receptive prisoners on his visits.to the gaol[]s] and acted as an intermediary between them and their families and legal representatives.  He arranged lectures and entertainments, read letters to the illiterate, visited pawnbrokers on behalf of prisoners and negotiated the storage of their belongings.  Once offenders were discharged he met them or invited them to his offices, arranging vouchers for food clothing, lodging and travel - most especially to places where the offender could make a new start.  And so it goes on writing articles, making submissions about conditions."

Then at a later time nearer to us now, long-time PARS worker, Viola Blincoe MBE, who was involved with the organisation from the 1950s to the 1970s is recorded saying. 

"Our work [for offenders' wives and families] was to see that their material needs were met and to support the wife to cope with the shock of her husband's imprisonment, and the sense of guilt she shared with her husband—in short to make up to her as far as it was possible for the loneliness which the husband's absence involved."

PARS work has two vital streams - first the practical help made available to those in dire need and secondly public engagement with policy approaches and directions.  By engaging many volunteers who give of their time and skills to back PARS programmes, the organisation helps build the fabric that gives strength to New Zealand society.  Many workers, who are paid, often work well beyond their allotted hours. 

Importantly, in my view, PARS adds strength to New Zealand's democracy.  Democracy is more than casting a vote every three years.  It is about participating in a variety of civic processes from voting, serving on juries, standing for office and making submissions. Becoming involved in the democratic process by making submissions proposed policies and legislation, PARS works to improve New Zealand's justice and correction systems.  And people such as John Whitty and those like Patrick Millen in the near past are standout examples - for the organisation and for society more generally.

I have long admired something said by Winston Churchill as being relevant to the Government's role in imprisoning as well as to organisations like PARS in the sense of conditions and their relevance in both punishment and rehabilitation.  He said:-

"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.  A calm dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused and even of the convicted criminal against the State; a constant heart searching by all charged with the duty of punishment; a desire and an eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry, those who have paid their due in the hard coinage of punishment; tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerative processes; unfailing faith that there is a treasure ,  if only you can find it in the heart of every man; these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminal mark and measure the stored up strength of a nation and are sign and proof of the living virtue in it".

For all the reasons implicit in what I have said, it was therefore with pleasure, upon my appointment as Governor-General last year that I agreed to be Patron of NZPARS.  I greatly respect your work in assisting a section of society that many would, at best, like to ignore, and at worst, vilify.

In wishing NZPARS all the best for ongoing success, I will close using some more of Margaret Tennant's words, which aptly describe the heart of what makes the organisation so special:

"In the end, the story of NZPARS is not simply about organisational frameworks and policies: it is fundamentally about the thousands of face to face interactions between individual workers, offenders and their families generated over 125 years."

On that heartening note, I will close in Maori issuing greetings and wishing you and your colleagues good health and fortitude in your endeavours.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.