This article documents endeavours to establish a higher education program for incarcerated learners in Aotearoa New Zealand. Presently, prisoners serving lengthy sentences in the country are precluded from obtaining a degree while in custody, which is in stark contrast to other jurisdictions with comparable penal systems. This study examines the…

While sensationalist headlines and highly publicised criminal cases have led many to believe there is a link between autism and criminal behaviour, extant literature presents an unresolved debate. We sought to address this issue by examining the prevalence of criminal justice system interactions among young adults with and without autism, and by…

"Nga Patu Korero: Walls That Talk" (2019) is a documentary theatre production staged by incarcerated men at Unit 8 Te Piriti at Auckland Prison in Aotearoa New Zealand. The performance was built around Te Whare Tapa Wha (The House of Four Sides) -- a model of Maori health that participants engaged with as part of their therapy for being…

This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled "self-control") predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data…

This article utilizes interviews with three teaching artists to interpret their lived experiences of teaching dance classes within New Zealand prisons. Prison environments and prison cultures create a multitude of challenges, such as the physical environment itself, social dynamics and hierarchy, and interaction and relationships with incarcerated…

The problematics of accessing res participants have been largely under-stated in the education research literature. This article discusses two case studies which illustrate the complexity of the process of access. This is complexity beyond ethical consent; it is the complexity of gaining access to research sites and participants and of ongoing…

Like all other OECD countries, Aotearoa New Zealand's least successful learners are defined equally by their gender, class and ethnicity, as by their inadequate learning scores. In the 2009 PISA study, 14.3% of Aotearoa New Zealand learners failed to reach Proficiency level 2 at age 15. This is defined as the level at which learners have the…

Both desistance research and strengths-based approaches to offender rehabilitation suggest that attempts to reduce sex offender recidivism should attend to an offender's release environment. Recent research has demonstrated that better quality release planning is associated with reduced recidivism; however, whether release planning contributes…

Sixty youth (16-19 years) from two youth prison sites participate in a prospective study examining criminal offending and learning disabilities (LD), completing measures of estimated IQ, attention, reading, and mathematical and oral language abilities. Prevalence rates of LDs exceed those of international studies, with 91.67% of the offenders…

As the empirical evidence accumulates, so does confidence that carefully designed and delivered rehabilitation approaches can reduce risk. Yet little is known about how to rehabilitate some specialized groups, such as high-risk violent offenders: career criminals with an extensive history of violent behavior. Since 1998, New Zealand's Rimutaka…

There has been a long, though often little explored, relationship between prisons and libraries. In the 19th century, in-prison libraries were introduced for evangelical purpose. Now they are seen as a key element in raising literacy levels and supporting prisoner education programmes which are ultimately aimed at rehabilitation and reintegration.…

Objective: To determine whether pro-social treatment change in sexual offenders would predict reductions in recidivism beyond static and dynamic risk factors measured at pretreatment and whether different methods for assessing change based on self-reports and structured clinical rating systems would show convergent validity. Method: We compared 3…

Access to, and delivery of, safe and culturally appropriate health services is increasingly important in New Zealand. This paper will focus on counting the costs of health advocacy through the experience of a small non government charitable organisation, the Health Advocates Trust, (HAT) which aimed to provide advocacy services for a wide range of…

A growing number of jurisdictions in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia have enacted legislation allowing for special sentencing, civil commitment, and community supervision options for high risk sexual offenders. In New Zealand, one example of this concern for public protection is the Parole (Extended Supervision) Amendment Act…

Prison populations have been identified as having elevated levels of problem gambling prevalence, and screening for problem gambling may provide an opportunity to identify and address a behavior that may otherwise lead to re-offending. A problem gambling screen for this purpose would need to be brief, simple to score, and be able to be…