Visiting International Prison Experts learn from New Zealand's prison system
Thursday 8 May 2008, 7:33AM
By Prison Fellowship of New Zealand
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Two internationally recognised authorities on prison management and reform are visiting New Zealand next week, are keen to learn from New Zealand's recent efforts to reduce the prison population. They are concerned about trends in New Zealand's imprisonment rates, but interested to learn from recent successes.
Professor Andrew Coyle and Baroness Vivien Stern, of the International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College, University of London, are keynote speakers at Prison Fellowship's 25th Anniversary Conference, from 16th – 18th May 2008.
Baroness Vivien Stern said, "Many of us who have connections with New Zealand and know it as a peaceful country with a strong community spirit have watched with considerable concern as the number of New Zealand citizens in prison has surpassed even England and Wales, which has the highest rate in Western Europe, reaching the levels of former communist countries of Eastern Europe. We will be most interested to see how New Zealand has managed recently to reduce its prison population by 1,000 and to learn some lessons to take back to the UK."
Ahead of his visit Professor Andrew Coyle commented, "We will be interested to learn how New Zealand deals with a prison population of people serving very long sentences, with an increasing proportion of older persons and a continuing disproportion of Maori citizens, and at the same time avoids the human rights abuses which are likely to occur in such situations."
Kim Workman, National Director, Prison Fellowship, "If you asked anyone internationally to identify the ten most influential people in prison and justice reform, Andrew Coyle and Vivien Stern would be on their list. Both are concerned about trends in imprisonment rates in recent times, but interested to learn how the government has managed to reduce the prison population by 1000 prisoners in the last six months."
"The Prison Fellowship conference is open to the public. We would encourage any member of the public with any interest in crime and punishment to attend and engage in discussion and debate. Interested persons can register at www.pfnz.org.nz
Baroness Vivien Stern is well known to New Zealanders, as one of the early advocates of restorative justice. From 1977 to 1996 she was Director of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO). In 2003 she became the Convener of the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice. She is also Honorary President of Penal Reform International (PRI).
Andrew Coyle was a senior prison manager in Scotland and the UK for many years, his last post as Governor of Brixton Prison. He is a prisons adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Latin American Institute, the Council of Europe, including its Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and several national governments. He is a member of the UK Foreign Secretary's Expert Committee against Torture.