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In mid-1992, media in a small central North Island town covered the story of a local woman arrested for stealing almost $20,000. “Clare” as she is identified in this programme, tells Jerome Cvitanovich what happened over the next seven months.
Clare was privately managing funds for a member of her community, a role outside of her normal accountancy job. At the time she took the money, which was to help her husband’s failing business, she believed she would have the money returned before being found out. A complaint was made to the police however and she was summoned to the station for interviewing. Following this she was arrested on one charge of theft for the full amount.
After driving home on auto pilot Clare describes how she couldn’t bring herself to tell her husband until the following morning. She admits that telling her family was the hardest even though they were the most understanding. It appears many in her small community had known of her actions before the police approached her and in retrospect, she says this accounted for several individuals’ behaviour she hadn’t understood at the time.
Clare says she felt immense guilt and was able to tell her victim when her probation officer took her to see him. She says her victim understood why she’d taken the money and didn’t want her to go to jail. She was told by her boss that if arrangements could be made for the charges to be diverted, she could keep her job. Because the media were involved, she found it tough being known to the community. She was given the opportunity of explaining her situation to colleagues and found this very helpful.
Clare explains how terrified she was of going to court because she didn’t know the procedures. After four court appearances over four months the judge sentenced her to six months in prison saying she needed to be made an example of. She’d already said goodbye to her husband and packed a bag in anticipation of a sentence, but remained terrified at the prospect of prison.
Clare tells of the awful conditions of the holding cells she stayed in before being sent to prison; the pipe and wire netting bed with plastic mattress, and although there was a pillow and blankets nothing was clean. She was at rock bottom, felt nothing could get better and understands why people hang themselves in these circumstances.
Clare notes the distant and cold behaviour of the police who would often comment on her crime in the course of their duties. A female in isolation, she felt like she had no rights, on top of living with the guilt of her actions. She was transported to Wellington and checked into prison; stripped down, searched and washed in the presence of female officers and a nurse. She received clean clothes and briefed on what she could take to her cell; her personal bag was replaced with an issued, canvas one.
Clare describes the inmates and wardens; some were good, some exceptional and others not, the latter were wardens taking their frustrations out on inmates. Her fears about prison life were not warranted and although pecking orders, shake downs and vendettas did exist, she wasn’t involved.
After being checked into the prison she was placed in solitary for three days, “to give me time to reflect upon the error of my ways” which she felt was pointless as she had already had plenty of time to do that. Her fellow inmates she describes as coming from lots of different and sad backgrounds. They were allowed to receive visitors in the dining room, though nothing was allowed to be brought into the prison and both inmates and the room were searched following visits.
Following her sentence she returned to her community – this she found hard; people often didn’t know what to say and some didn’t want anything to do with her, which she understood. At this point Clare didn’t feel confident in applying for accountancy jobs and considered taking her own life. However since her release in 1992, Clare has returned to tertiary education to upskill.