The government plans to set up military-style academies for young offenders aged 14-17. File photo. Photo: 123RF
The government is pushing ahead with boot camps for young offenders, despite opposition parties and youth justice advocates insisting there is no evidence they will work.
On Sunday, the government released further details on its plan to set up military-style academies and a new category, Young Serious Offender, that could land someone as young as 14 in one.
The YSO category will be for offenders aged 14-17 who have been proven to have committed two offences punishable by imprisonment of 10 years or more. They will have been assessed as being likely to reoffend, with previous interventions having proven unsuccessful.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealanders were sick of crime, and current approaches were not working.
"Let's try some things, let's have a different approach, let's do something different to try and get a different set of outcomes," he said.
The aim of the new approach is to reduce youth offending by 15 percent.
The boot camp pilot will start at the end of July in Palmerston North, with 10 youths who are already within the youth justice system.
Minister for Children Karen Chhour said there would be a three-month residence stage, followed by nine months helping offenders transition back into the community.
"I don't necessarily see it as a punishment," Chhour said.
"I actually see it as the biggest support network they'll probably ever have, actually putting the resources behind them, to enable them to be the best that they can be.
"These young people are smart, these young people have lost hope. And this is about giving them their hope back."
The pilot has been designed by Oranga Tamariki, police, the Defence Force, the Ministry of Justice, local mana whenua, and other community groups.
Christopher Luxon says it's time for a "different approach". Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Luxon said an expert panel would assess what was working, and where improvements would be needed.
Chhour said the government had learned from previous programmes and the new system would focus on rehabilitation, with pathways to education, training, or employment.
"Each young person will have a plan based around their needs, and based around why they've come to us in the first place. Because we do know that a lot of young people that do come before the courts have had a pretty hard upbringing, generally, and do need a lot more care."
However, opposition parties remain sceptical.
Green Party justice spokesperson Tamatha Paul said the plan failed to address the drivers of why young people fell into crime.
"We're talking about people whose brains are still developing. People who can't take into account the full consequences of their actions. People who are more susceptible to peer pressure. People who struggle to regulate their emotions. Because we're talking about children," she said.
"There is no evidence that says that punishing children ever works as a way to turn their behaviour around. Only love and care can do that. And I know that sounds airy-fairy, but at the end of the day, that is the thing that those children have never had, which is why they they do the things that they do."
Paul said it would lock in intergenerational cycles of incarceration.
"You wouldn't lock your kid up for for doing something that you didn't want them to do. Like, you wouldn't throw them in a room and close the door and leave them in there to reflect on what they've done wrong. Because it doesn't work," she said.
"It doesn't work with parenting, it doesn't work in schools, and it won't work in these detention centres, either."
The Green Party's justice spokesperson Tamatha Paul. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour's youth spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said the approach was "the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" and was worried the YSO category was being set up before the government had evaluated whether the pilot programme had worked.
"I have serious concerns for the harm that this may do to children while they are in these programmes. And the minister needs to guarantee that children will not be harmed through this process of boot camps in this experiment," she said.
Aaron Hendry from youth development group Kick Back said the government's role should be to enable communities to respond to their children's needs, and pouring money into the camps was "punitive rhetoric".
"It's great to talk about reintegration, it's great to talk about wraparound services, but where's the investment in our communities, building the sorts of services and support that we need to really, truly make this work and keep our kids safe?" he said.
Luxon denied the boot camps would be "punitive" and reiterated the focus on reintegration. He said the government's social investment approach would ensure young people had access to addiction or rehabilitation services.
During the election, National said the camps would be for 15- to 17-year-olds, but the government has extended that down to 14-year-olds.
The YSO category, however, was initially going to target offenders aged 10-17.
Chhour said the category was tightened because children under 14 were dealt with in the Family Court, rather than the Youth Court, so the government would work on that with future legislation.
The prime minister said the government would now take "proper thinking" and "proper advice" on that extension.
Hendry said his advice to the government would be to work with communities.
"The opportunity here is that actually, it's a really small group of young people that fall into this persistent offending category that the government's talking about, which means we know who these children are. We know who their families are, we know who their whānau are, we know who their communities are.
"And there's opportunity for the government to get really targeted and go to those communities, those whānau and say, 'what do you need to really care for your kids? And how can we wrap the services around you, and the support around you, to get the best result we can?'"