Relapse, Recalls and Reoffending.

You may have heard the phrase ‘relapse is a part of recovery’, but is it really? Or is it just something we say to soften the blow of a setback? You may have also seen our recall and reoffending rates in past publications and wondered what the stats represent beneath the numbers. This article explores our perspective on the challenging side of our work - relapse, recalls and reoffences.

In approaching this topic, it may be useful to clarify that a ‘recall’ refers to a circumstance where an individual released on parole breaches their conditions, or poses a safety risk to the community and is then recalled to prison before their sentence ends. A ‘reoffence’, however, refers to a circumstance where an individual commits a new crime and is convicted after being released from prison or after starting a community-based sentence.

We caught up with Reintegration Navigator Matiu Brokenshire to find out more about what triggers these kinds of setbacks with our clients. He explains that sometimes clients have unrealistic expectations of what life will look like on the outside. “A lot of the guys wear rose coloured glasses, with ideas that once they get out life will be easy enough. They’ll get a job, get a house, stay clean. We know that life doesn’t look like that, to have a week where everything that can go wrong does go wrong, but they don’t realise this,”. 

When everyday frustrations start to pile up - getting stuck in traffic, relationship problems, job opportunities falling through - the pressure builds, and old coping mechanisms can resurface. “When you look at the nature of their setback, ninety-nine per cent of the time, it’s a man who got to a point where he felt like he couldn’t cope, made some decisions and then all the dominoes fell over,” Matiu reflects.

As an organisation whose mission is to help people make a fresh start, we could see a relapse, recall or reoffence as an utter failure -  a journey reset back to square one. But Matiu sees it differently. "It's not black and white, it's not success versus failure. These setbacks are an opportunity, because the client did well, and they didn't know what they didn't know. But now they're discovering it. They'd say, 'I didn't realise, Matiu, that I wasn't prepared for heartache, I wasn't prepared for the fifty-four pressures of living on the outside. I've got some work to do this time around' so setbacks aren’t square one, they’re another opportunity,".

Matiu aptly points out, “The process of change is not linear for anyone, whether it’s dieting and exercise, running, kayaking, whatever it is. It’s never A to B, and it’s no different for reintegration and sobriety,”.

When you consider the complete life transformation many of our clients are attempting to make, it’s no surprise that there are bumps along the journey.

While it’s always disappointing when the people we work with make poor decisions that lead to a setback, our Reintegration Navigator's first response is to inject hope into the situation. “I tell my guys,” Matiu shares, “‘neither of us, when we went on this journey, wanted to end up here, but we’re here now, and this isn’t the end, we need to work on getting back, but what have you learned? This is an opportunity to work on the things that tripped you up, so it doesn’t happen again’”. Matiu emphasises, “It’s my job to give hope, it doesn’t matter how disappointing the situation may be,”. 

Following this initial response, Matiu often has some difficult but necessary conversations “I tell them ‘on the journey back it’s not going to be easy this time around, but I’ve got you,’ it’s still love and hope, because if I love and have hope for him, I’m going to have those hard conversations with him,”.

Ultimately, this approach is informed by our perspective of reintegration as a whole. Matiu likens the reintegration process to building a business, saying, “Think about how many setbacks Alloyfold had before getting one of the biggest seating contracts in Christchurch for the stadium, they would never have applied a ‘we’ll just give up’ model,”. In the same way, a setback in reintegration isn’t a failure, but another step in the journey for those wanting to make a fresh start. It's an opportunity to learn, grow, and build a more sustainable path forward. This is why we never give up on people. Ever.

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