8 Dec 2017

Ballet being taught in prisons to reduce population

From Checkpoint, 6:24 pm on 8 December 2017

A joint venture between Corrections and the Royal New Zealand Ballet is bringing dance into Arohata Women's Prison for the first time.

In five years the female prison population has about quadrupled nearly 800 women behind bars.

New Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has pledged to reduce the prison population by 30 percent in the next 15 years.

To bring the numbers down, new initiatives to help develop skills are being encouraged.

Once such initiative is the joint venture between Corrections and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.  

The women involved have been busy preparing for their Christmas performances and RNZ Concert music journalist Zoe George and video journalist Richard Tindiller went behind bars to take a look.