Act leader David Seymour and his minister Karen Chhour.
Act leader David Seymour and his minister Karen Chhour.
Opinion by Willow-Jean Prime
Willow-Jean Prime has been a Labour MP since 2017. She is a mum of two and has worked as a solicitor.
THREE KEY FACTS
Experts and survivors warned the Government against boot camps, citing their harmful impact.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Children’s Minister Karen Chhour are criticised for extending the military component without evidence.
Community-based programmes are urged instead of boot camps, highlighting the needs of youth offenders.
Countless academics, experts, survivors – all warned the Government against going back down this failed and harmful road of bootcamps. We see now these fears were warranted.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon needs to step in and put an end to this pilot, because clearly Karen Chhour has lost control.
All of this comes as the Government recklessly forces through its young serious offender legislation to entrench bootcamps without taking lessons from the pilot – rendering it meaningless.
I said in my speech at the time, speaking against the legislation, that the Government is under-handedly looking to extend the length of the military-component of the bootcamps. Disappointingly, it looks like my hunch was right.
It was certainly a mask-off moment for Christopher Luxon and Karen Chhour, who’ve seemingly let it slip that these incidents may be used as justification to extend the length of time young people spend in residence within the bootcamps.
Another concerning aspect is that Karen Chhour won’t rule out future involvement from Defence or Corrections, which indicates their approach risks becoming more and more punitive.
It beggars belief that after losing control and witnessing nearly half the participants fall through the cracks, the minister’s answer is not to hit pause, but rather intensify it. I remain worried that this has been the plan all along.
It’s shameless and illustrates a Government that doesn’t care for evidence – even if that involves a crime spree through Hamilton, which isn’t just a “hiccup”, Minister.
The minister claims there is intensive, wrap-around support in place during the transition phase, it isn’t apparent just what this is.
A mentor for about 30 hours a week and frequent visits from a social worker doesn’t sound like the round-the-clock therapeutic support these young people need.
We know all the participants on the pilot have a history of engagement with the care and protection system, and have complex needs. We know up to 80% of young people in the youth justice system have experienced family violence. The majority have drug and alcohol problems. And almost all of them will have significant learning difficulties. They need help to heal from years of trauma.
Serious youth offenders like the participants on this bootcamp have highly complex needs. Dressing them up in uniforms for three months clearly was pointless.
They need therapeutic, consistent, community-based support to deal with these issues. It is not clear that this transition phase was designed to properly provide the supports necessary to address all of this.
We know there are already community and iwi-based programmes that are working now to turn these young people’s lives around.
Willow-Jean Prime Photo / RNZ Angus Dreaver
As it stands, more than 330 community services like Family Start and youth one-stop-shops have had their funding cut. Instead of pouring money into failed bootcamps, what we should be investing in are community-based programmes that provide intensive, family wraparound support, early intervention and prevention.
As is becoming more apparent, Christopher Luxon was perhaps at his most honest when he said he doesn’t care whether bootcamps would work or not.
