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Law for Change, a national group of over 350 young lawyers and law students, are donating their time to helping with rehabilitation at the Otago Correction Facility. The members are all volunteering their skills and time to work on projects that address the unmet legal needs of local communities. Their latest project in Dunedin involves Otago Law students spending time interacting with prisoners. The programme is aimed to assist prisoners in gaining various skills as well as providing prisoners with some interaction with the outside world. Law students also gain the experience of having interaction with inmates.

Anna Goble, a law student at the University of Otago, spoke to Critic about her experiences with volunteering at Law for Change. “I got involved with Law for Change because I think it’s important that we, both as law students and citizens, are involved with and help those who are currently under-represented by [the law],” she said.

The students interact with the inmates through the development of new skills by holding workshops in arts and craft, sports and music sessions. Goble’s experience in the music sessions had been positive, saying, “Most of the prisoners there are already musically talented, so it was a matter of rekindling their talents and fostering them. The prisoners I have interacted with so far have been incredibly pleasant, well mannered and light hearted. Not once have I felt uncomfortable.” The interaction the prisoners receive through community involvement is seen to be vital to their rehabilitation process. “I personally believe that rehabilitation is the backbone of the justice system. It is not often in life that we are given second chances,” says Goble. She said, “For the prisoners to have at their disposal the opportunity to interact with others, to learn new skills and have some continuity and familiarity in their lives, is a good stepping stone to rehabilitating them.”

The Christchurch campus of the Otago Medical School has also had a programme involving the placement of students in prisons. They spent a week educating the youth unit in Christchurch Men’s Prison about safe sexual health behaviour. A fifth-year medical student spoke to Critic about the medical school programme, which is used as a way to implement a public health intervention. “We thought it was a great way to see parts of the community we don’t have much contact with normally and it felt like we were actually doing something useful,” she said.

Goble encourages students to get involved with the project; she said, “I would advocate for more people to interact with [the prisoners] if given the opportunity, as it’s not only incredibly rewarding, but to see the justice system first hand is an incredible experience, especially for a law student.”