Eight inmates at Auckland South Corrections Facility will graduate from a literacy programme run by the Howard League for penal reform.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins, representatives from the Howard League and Department of Corrections, and Serco managers will attend the Howard League graduation ceremony at the facility today.
Judith Collins will present certificates to the graduating prisoners and prisoner peer mentors of the Howard League Literacy Programme.
The Howard League’s objectives are aimed at reducing the prison population and recidivism rates.
According to their website the organisation organises and executes basic literacy programmes in jails by approaching retired primary teachers. “Many of our inmates are functionally illiterate, a situation which makes getting a job on release all the more difficult,” the website states.
The literacy programme equips inmates with skills, qualifications and education to help them while in prison and on their release.
The Department of Corrections says 65 percent of all inmates in New Zealand don’t have an NCEA qualification, and 30 percent have severe literacy issues.