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Most come with an attitude. Some of their upbringings are horrific and involve drugs, gangs, alcohol, family violence, and abuse. Almost all have dropped out of school. A lot have mental health issues and some have tried to take their own lives. But come they do, the ram raiders, the burglars and thieves, those who have dealt out vicious assaults on others, the delinquents and lawbreakers whose time has run out before their lives have begun. Some are as young as 12. Residential youth remand facilities in Tauranga that take in young offenders from around the country are using a ‘tough love,’ approach to change lives and open opportunities for those in the court system. Carmen Hall gets a look inside two homes, and talks to frontline staff and a teenager who used to rob stores but now has a job and is remorseful about the crimes he committed.
Situated in a picturesque, quiet neighbourhood, down a driveway is an older property that has been reconfigured to accommodate three male youth offenders, live-in house parents and an office for wraparound support workers.
There are no bars on the windows and the home is warm, inviting, and spotless. There are leafy plants, inspirational quotes on the walls, an open-plan living design, and a lounge with a massive TV.
But this is no holiday camp. There is around-the-clock supervision and the “boys” are paired with mentors who watch their every move.
Welcome to Whare Tuhua, one of Te Tuinga Whānau’s Manaaki Rangatahi remand care homes, a Youth Justice referred community-based, bail programme.
Sitting at the dining room table with her hands interlaced, house parent Gaynor Kahika says in her whare, which she runs with her husband George, a former prison officer, they set the rules.
The couple believe in the old ways, the principles they were bought up with and they raised their own whānau by.
This is a no-nonsense safe zone.
“They all come here with an attitude and think they are all staunch and they are the big boss,“ Gaynor says.
Her response? “I don’t think so sunshine. There is only one boss here and it isn’t you.“
“We are at the helm. We use tough love and give it back to them.“
She says everyone is focused on providing normality and stability in a caring, drug-free and alcohol-free environment.
However, she is quick to remind them, “this is a remand home and not a demand home“.
“So you don’t get to demand from me because you will get told no.“
“Am I a bit firm?“ She ponders the question and then smiles.
“Somebody has to be because I don’t believe in wrapping up kids in cotton wool.“
Nine times out of 10 the things they ask for they won’t get, she says, and they “will learn you can’t have everything just like that“.
She believes there is a place for military boot camps, as proposed by the National Party, but is concerned about the support that would be provided when the kids went back into the real world.
In her whare, their aim is to gain the boys’ trust so they will open up and then the true work can begin.
George loves to help and “keep them on the straight and narrow“, Gaynor says, and he draws on his 16 years of experience with the Department of Corrections.
Day one or two is the honeymoon period when everyone “sussed“ each other out.
“Once that is all done and dusted they start to feel relaxed and then we can go more in-depth into what they want to do and what hobbies they are interested in. We don’t go out of our way to spoil them, this is not a holiday, but we try and work some of those activities into our whare.
“There is a lot of mentoring and support and goal-setting, depending on how long they are here for.
“I think deep down they want better for themselves, but where do they get that support from if they have come from a broken home?“
She says some of their backstories are tragic and sad and there is a lot of baggage to unpack.
The couple use humour to navigate and outdoor-inspired activities to keep idle hands busy.
Many boys have tried fishing and have been taken out on a boat, which led to learning and included washing down the vessel, gutting, filleting and smoking their catch. If they fail to do those things then they don’t get to go out again. Others go hunting and diving.
There was also mahi to do around the whare and they often played paper, scissors, rock, with the loser getting to scrub the toilet.
Appearances in court loomed, as did regular appointments with social workers, lawyers and calls to whānau.
Departures from the programme are bittersweet but the Kahikas are proud of those who have gone on to jobs and pursued career pathways away from crime.
Gaynor’s hard exterior is known to soften.
“I don’t cry, I just get upset because I want to keep them here. If you look deep inside of them, they are really, really good kids.
“It hurts my heart when they go.“
Across town, house parent Russell Teki is in with a young female youth offender who has expressed an interest in becoming an apprentice mechanic.
She jokes it could help her steal cars. These comments are met with raised eyebrows and the conversation quickly shifts into the steps she could take to become a tradie.
Teki is the head honcho at Te Tuinga Whānau Whare Matariki, a high-needs girls’ remand home. He started the job about six months ago. The burly father of two, grandfather of three and whāngai parent of six, alongside his wife, Teraania, a kura and primary school teacher, believes in the power of aroha and giving back.
The home is modern and spacious with a sweeping courtyard enhanced by great outdoor living and an array of fruit trees. there are plans to bring in a few chooks and tidy up the vege garden to become more self-sufficient.
There are locks on the outside of every door.
Some of the girls here have attempted suicide. Some of them have tried to take their own lives in this home, which can accommodate up to three. The youngest-ever resident was a 12-year-old. Doctors, psychiatrists and social workers are on speed dial.
The road is not easy but Teki, a former labourer, road worker, rail worker and stevedore, can relate because of his “tough upbringing and hard life“ which was exacerbated by poverty, where he learned to “survive on the basics“. However, he believes you cannot underestimate the power of aroha and caring.
“We try to inspire our rangatahi. You can come from rugged backgrounds but the pathways are there and we have the support systems to help you.“
He says life for young people is a different world today with the rise of social media, technology and smartphones. There are more challenges including bullying and a lot more young people are associated with gangs and many were battling mental health issues.
“The stress of being a teenager is different today. I’ve never really heard of these situations back in the day.
“You have got to get a clear understanding of where they are coming from and their roots to help our kotiro reconnect to their whānau.“
Structure and routine are encouraged, with appointments for the girls written on a whiteboard. One is re-engaging with kura kaupapa after doing an internal My Tuakiri Programme, where everyone learns more about their identity and internal well-being from a Māori perspective.
Teki, also the chief cook, is known to whip up healthy kai, a mean seafood chowder, boil-up and big breakfasts with bacon and eggs, and says the most inspiring part of his job was when the girls turned a corner.
“You can tell when they’ve made that change. We plant the seed and you see it graduate from there and you see that spark. We have tears of joy when we see them move into that space.“
“I’d get blackout drunk and do kinda dumb stuff. I was drinking when I was 12 then I started smoking cannabis and I’ve done P,“ says one teenager.
Donned in a balaclava, baseball bat in hand, he would do smash and grabs and rob shops in broad daylight and after hours. He is at a loss to explain why but says, “I never wanted to hurt anyone.
“I was just biking around and smashing windows and robbing gas stations and shops.“
The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age at the time he committed these crimes, is softly spoken and says he takes full responsibility for his actions. He wants to share his story.
“I regret it.“
He is on speakerphone and supported by his social worker, who has helped him get a job, his driver’s licence and has found him somewhere to live.
His descent perhaps began after he was expelled from school at 13 over an alleged physical confrontation with another student.
“I was kicked out and no other school would take me. I just sat around at home before doing some courses.“
Drinking and drugs were an everyday part of his upbringing and he says his childhood was “rough“.
At one residential remand facility, he was bashed in the toilets by three other boys. He stole a car when he was at Te Tuinga Whānau’s Manaaki Rangatahi remand care home but credits the organisation’s perseverance for helping him steer away from crime.
“They were like whānau to me. I was sad when I had to leave.“
He is now looking forward to a brighter future, earning a living and not ending up in prison.
“Yeah, I suppose I’m proud of myself … now.“
“You want to go where the rough diamonds are. Those are the ones you can polish up and have the most effect on.“
This is the view of Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust executive director Tommy Wilson, who says the trust’s foray into youth remand homes stemmed from an at-risk-youth programme spearheaded by Rangi Ahipene about a decade ago.
His classroom was a fishing boat and he taught troubled young people how to carve fish hooks from bone, use flax for line and binding, how to navigate by landmarks of islands and outdoor survival skills.
Wilson says the programme proved to be a catalyst and formed the basis for the Whare Tuhua boys’ pilot remand home three-and-a-half years ago - which led to the opening of the Whare Matariki high-needs girls’ remand home and Whare Tauhuru boys’ bail home.
“We learned so much way back then and that formed the basis and we applied that ethos and we do it across a lot of other programmes including prison reintegration as it’s the only thing we see as working out there. It’s not by chance we got the remand home government contracts and the timing was a perfect storm, given the upsurge in ram raiding.“
Wilson says he is confident the success rate at the remand homes is “way above 50 per cent and we’d like to get to 80 per cent“.
In an ideal world, the trust would like to upscale its remand homes but says it is not easy to find suitable staff.
“You have to be a social worker, you have to be a counsellor, you have to be a physical fitness instructor, you have to have knowledge about tikanga Māori. Those four attributes are not easy to find and it would be really cool if there was someone training people.“
“We’re finding we have to train them on the job … the best ones are the ones that have been through the same environment and come out the other side.“
Te Tuinga Whānau operations manager Corey Wanakore says the “problem is the kids aren’t going to stop coming“.
“What we know right now is the remand homes in New Zealand are full and that poses the problem.“
Wanakore served in the Army for 28 years and says talk of military-styled boot camps could be hard to duplicate outside the gates.
“What works in one environment is not necessarily going to work in another.“
The former probation officer says he changed direction and wanted to help youth after dealing with people on their release from prison.
“Some of them were really tainted and were bad and knew how to manipulate the system. Some of them didn’t want to change and would rather commit a crime and go back to jail because the conditions were too hard on them. One example was not affiliating with the gangs when that is all they have ever known so they would breach bail.
“So straightaway there were all these walls placed in front of them that the probation officer had to ensure they couldn’t jump over. And I thought, ‘Stuff this, I want to be somewhere else. I want to be at the beginning of the line where you make a difference’.“
And he says his staff were in that space and he took comfort in that.
Te Tuinga Whānau manaaki rangatahi koruru leader Trudy Elling says the youth offenders come from all over New Zealand and are from different ethnicities. All its remand homes are free of drugs, alcohol, phones and devices.
It chooses what offenders may be a good fit and she goes through the paperwork to see what crimes they had committed which may have included ram raids, robberies and assaults.
Oranga Tamariki Youth Justice director Ben Hannifin isn’t one to sugarcoat things, but he does believe in second chances.
He says the remand homes were developed for the needs the young people have that extend far beyond the offending behaviour.
“Some of them have had challenges from the day they were born. We can’t get away from the fact they are in our world because of the crimes they commit and there are victims. So we have to make sure that there’s that ability to understand the impact those kids have had within their community, but to also unpack some of this.
“You know, God, the absolute carnage … for such a young, young person, you know, the teenager shouldn’t have had to have gone through some of the experiences that they have.“
It had 16 residential community remand homes around the country which could accommodate three to five offenders and demand in the youth justice system had been up this year due in part to ram raiders, he said. However, the homes weren’t stretched beyond their operational capacity, or beyond the ability to deliver really good outcomes.
In 2019, the criminal age was raised to 18 so the Government invested in building more community alternatives. Young people aged from 12 can appear before Youth Court, while some younger children could be referred to a residential home.
Teenagers were most likely to appear before the courts for driving offences, ram raids, fleeing police, property charges such as theft and more violent crimes. These offenders were more likely to end up in one of five secure residential residences behind 5m-high fences, Hannifin says.
Youth offending overall had dropped by 2 per cent and stays in the homes could range from one or two days to 40.
“It’s not rocket science to understand why these environments are just more conducive to delivering good results. So I guess that’s what we’re all about it is the support these young people and their families need is significantly more than a particular programme.
“It’s a complete wraparound. And I think we’ve seen really good results when it’s community-led. Because it’s much more enduring.“
Minister for Children Kelvin Davis says residential youth homes play a key role in the work being done to help young people to get their lives back on track.
“The young people that end up in these places have almost always come from a disadvantaged background, having often grown up surrounded by violence, drug use and abuse.
“This is not to excuse their behaviour, but it needs to be understood in order to provide the best resources and support to try and make changes that will get them off the path they are heading in.“
Youth crime has actually been trending downwards for several years, with the great work in the youth justice space playing an important part in that.
“It is true, however, that there has been a recent spike in offending, particularly certain types such as ram raids in areas including Auckland and Waikato.
“The public and business owners have a right to feel safe and the Government has responded by recently introducing a fast-track intervention model for a small group of recidivist child offenders. This will see them have a plan put in place within 24-48 hours of reoffending.“
It builds on other initiatives including the Better Pathways package and Kotahi te Whakaaro, aimed at those aged 14-17, which are clearly making an impact. In August there were 75 ram raids, while by November 21 that dropped to 15 so far for the month.
This evidence-based approach is in stark contrast to National’s plan to bring back boot camps, a reheated policy that has already been proven to not work.
National Party justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith said even the Prime Minister recognises that we need new tools to deal with the small group of serious repeat youth offenders.
He acknowledged rehabilitation and trying to keep young people out of the court system worked for 80 to 90 per cent of young people who got involved with the court system once and learned the error of their ways.
“But there’s a very small group who are serious repeat offenders and when we think of ram raiders that is a very serious crime. Stealing a car and smashing it into a building is aggravated.“
Goldsmith said boot camp was a dismissive term for its youth military academy programme idea and another option available for the courts.
“We are proposing it could be up for a year and at the end of it you aren’t sent off never to be seen again – you carry on with intensive, focused attention from specialist groups who deal with these sorts of offenders.“
Goldsmith said the programme wasn’t a reheat, it was different and part of a much broader package.
Back at Whare Matariki, Wanakore roars up the driveway on a shiny Harley Davidson that has just been through the car wash.
Elling says “he is showing off again“ as everyone runs outside to admire the bike.
“This is what hard work and a job looks like,“ he says.
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