This farm is run by the Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) scheme,and in three years is footing it with any well-run dairy farm, evident from its two milk-quality awards from Fonterra last season.
CIE southern farms manager Allan Gorton said the awards for high milk quality (a low somatic cell count) were tributes to the farm instructors and prisoners...
The farm is run as a commercial venture and also as a training facility for prisoners before release.
In conjunction with daily farm work, inmates are offered training through the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation.
Last season 75 prisoners gained 283 unit standards in a variety of courses. For some these were their first qualifications.
The credits were earned for courses as diverse as animal health, animal handling, chainsaw safety, Grow Safe and tractor and all-terrain vehicle driving.
Mr Gorton said he knew of seven men who were now working on dairy farms as a result of training at the Milton property. Others had jobs in related farm industries...
"For some, it is the first time they have passed something in their life. To them it's very meaningful. It lifts their self-esteem."
For many, it was the first time they had worked with large animals, which could be intimidating as well as rewarding.
"The thing about animals is that they don't argue, condemn or criticise," Mr Gorton said.
I am never able to fall into one or other camp when it comes to crime and punishment. Prisons are essentially places that make most who go there more likely to re-offend. Yet sending them there is often unavoidable.
So why don't we do more of this sort of stuff? I can see a strong libertarian argument that objects to using taxpayer money to create competition with other tax-paying farms. But if the primary role of the state is to maintain law and order doesn't rehabilitation take a higher priority?
I am reminded of a recent conversation I had with a man who did a spray painting apprenticeship in prison. By sheer chance he got the opportunity to demonstrate his proficiency with a potential employee. He told me how he had stepped into the booth, done all the right things bar neglecting to don the mask of the usual worker. He was stopped and asked if he had heard of OSH? To which he replied, "Listen. I've just come out of jail. I've got me a clean bill of health. No hep. No HIV." Of which he was evidently very proud. "You think I'm putting that germ-riddled thing on, your mad." Suffice to say, he got the job.
2 comments:
Regarding the comment about businesses "employing" prisoners having an unfair advantage over their competitors, I think there's a difference between a prisoner working just for the sake of working, and meaningful training. I don't know much about farming, but I suspect a dairy farm isn't really in competition with other dairy farms, as they are paid the same rate as neighbouring farms and can't undercut any competitors.
I think the lessons about animal welfare are good messages, too. Some people grow up with little concern shown about them, and they then don't know how to show concern toward others. Looking after animals is a good first step. I believe some prisoners are training puppy guide dogs, and I saw an interview where a prisoner said it was the first time he had ever cared about another living thing. In the US prisoners also train dogs to help soldiers who were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan. Violence against animals often leads to violence against people, and I suspect that caring and compassion towards animals will lead to compassion towards people. I definitely think more training programmes like this are worthwhile.
This is very heartening news.
If these prisoners have chosen to work in the dairy field, and are keen for employment on dairy farms when they are released from prison, then I would suggest that that both they and the dairy industry will be rewarded for that initiative.
Very few people applying for entry level dairy farm employment are suited to the job, most have limited application to progress, and often learn all the bad habits of the person employing them. Somatic Cell control is one of the key animal health issues which is ignored by many in the industry, and if these prisoners are learning the recogniton and treatment of this precusor to mastitis, and have the pride in their work that this entails, then their employment will be assured by good farmers who themselves have animal welfare and high production as their goals. Prisoners who have the desire to stay away from the enviroment which encouraged their offending could well thrive in the rural environment, which rewards self-discipline and the desire to succeed. They will be housed, fed (or given meat and milk as part of their remuneration package), with plenty of scope to save much of their income. There are plenty of employers who will recognise their honest endeavours and assist them to progress within the industry. In only a handful of years, those with a good work ethic, and a desire to succeed, can make very real progress to a very finacially rewarding career with huge job satisfaction.
I have seen men and woman, in their 30's and 40's, make the transition from the urban rat-race to highly productive dairy farmers in just a few short years. All it takes is the right attitude, a willinness to listen, and some ambition to get ahead.
Good employers will queue up for staff with those qualities.
Relative inexperience, but a good attitude attitude, is far more desirable to farming employers than lots of experience and a bad attitude.
There are plenty of farm employers who would value the opportunity to help willing people succeed.
kurt
Post a Comment