Jail programme step to new direction
Tyson Matenga has spent 12 of his 30 years behind bars, watching his four kids grow up in photos.
He went in when he was 17 years old, got out three months ago, and is now in Gisborne.
“There are times when I think maybe I’m better off inside. You don’t need a job,” he told the Herald.
“I tell people sometimes I just want to go back. They tell me to not be stupid, but there’s a lot of stress out here.
“Without a job, it’s tempting to sell drugs or do something bad to make income.”
Matenga says his criminal record is too long to fit on some of the job applications he’s filled out.
His criminal history involves violent offending and reckless driving causing injury — a head-on crash he caused in 2016 as he was fleeing police.
“When I first went to jail, I had a lot of authority issues. Probation and prison officers and others, I just treated them the same as cops.”
But it wasn’t just the “us and them” culture, and he realised he needed to own his mistakes.
“It was my own beliefs holding me back. Once I decided I wanted to get out of jail, it helped a lot.”
In 2017, he took part in Corrections’ Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation Programme — for violent offenders with a high risk of reoffending — and confronted his history of family violence.
The first step was to write an autobiography and then read it out to everyone.
“The therapist tells us why we are how we are, how our core beliefs were formed. They make us aware that we can change those beliefs and not pass them to our kids.
“The biggest one for me was being aware of my emotions. Growing up, I was only aware of happy, sad or angry. When I got frustrated or confused, I couldn’t identify those feelings.
“Now once I know when I’m getting frustrated, I just walk away and take a breather, take some time out, go see my kids or something like that.”
The programme spurred him into trying to find answers about why his brother committed suicide.
He has now set up a Taking Isn’t Weak Facebook page to help people with depression.
In his last prison stint, Matenga did NCEA courses in fitness, and when he was released Corrections helped him with setting up a bank account and getting an 18+ ID card.
And now he’s found work teaching kick-boxing at a local Gisborne gym.
“If you want help in prison, there are good courses. It’s whether you want to do it.”