2 days ago
Students hope new prisoners' newsletter 'removes some stigma'
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123RF
A group of journalism students at University of Canterbury has launched a newsletter for the region's prison population.
The publication
Prison News
will be delivered to Christchurch Men's, Christchurch Women's and Rolleston Prison every two months, featuring stories about issues relevant to inmates.
The project is being run in collaboration with prison reform organisation Howard League Canterbury.
Student Aimee Muller, who is also the chief editor, said Howard League previously approached students about the opportunity to do a newsletter and the project took off this year.
"Our first edition just came out and we've been working really hard to write stories that are interesting for inmates together. It's quite a collaborative project which has been super exciting," she said.
"In the most recent addition we had a feature on a previous inmate who now has turned his life around and is working on documentaries.
"We've done pieces on current legislation that is relevant to inmates, and we've also done a couple of pieces about services that are available as well, because we think it's really important to highlight services and opportunities for people who may be not be aware of these."
Muller believed it was important for people not in prison to be informed as well.
"People who can pick up our newsletter I think it's interesting for them to hear more about what goes on inside prison, stories from people who have been in prison and kind of what they're doing with their life now," she said.
"We hope that it removes some stigma around what inmates are perceived as through the media sometimes."
Muller said about 400 copies of the newsletter's first edition were printed and distributed to the libraries of the three prisons."
A PO box number has been included also so that readers could send feedback on the kind of issues they would like to see covered.
"Our overall dream would be to send copies to as many prisons across New Zealand as possible."
