The Anglican Bishop of Wellington says his week-long vigil praying for New Zealand's 8000 prisoners and their victims was a profound experience.
Bishop Justin Duckworth spent a week locked inside a small cabin outside Wellington's Cathedral of St Paul to draw attention to penal reform, and spent nine hours a day in prayer.
He said too many prisoners leave jail with reoffending their only skill, and that's why prisons become a revolving door.
The bishop said he had never done such concentrated prayer before, and gained a profound sense that God cares about the issue. "Also, concerned about their victims and making sure we don't allow offenders to come out and reoffend again and again and again, and so actually working for restoration."
