Children’s Minister Karen Chhour said on Thursday she was disappointed in the alleged reoffending, but believed it would be naive to think none of those participating would reoffend.
“I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity at a second chance,” she said in a statement.
“We were hopeful this would not occur, but we understand the complexities in the lives of these young people. Ultimately, what they do with these opportunities is up to them.”
She said the pilot had learnt from previous military-style programmes, with a key differentiating factor being that support was given to the participants after they left the residence and returned to the community.
“I am confident the residential stage of the Military-Style Academy pilot is having success.
“Several of the boys left the programme with jobs already lined up. Each one has a mentor who is working with them and there is intensive, tailored support for each young person.”
The news prompted Opposition political parties to call on the minister to halt her legislation that would make the academies a permanent option for sentencing young serious offenders.
That legislation had its first reading in the House on Thursday afternoon and passed with the support of the governing parties.
The Green Party’s justice spokeswoman Tamatha Paul urged the minister to hit “pause on legislating the boot camps until the pilot is complete and has had the chance to be evaluated before pushing forward later today”.
Labour’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said there was “no evidence to support that boot camps work internationally.”
“We’ve had a Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care which highlighted the dangers and history of boot camps in this country. This is a pilot and yet they are acting prematurely to make other legislative changes around it.”
Speaking to reporters, Chhour defended going ahead with the legislation.
“I’m not going to sit here in a few years' time and have a failure of not trying anything.
“These young people deserve an opportunity to be the best they can be and I’m going to provide those opportunities.
“What those young people do with those opportunities is in their hands, but it is a bit like taking away support services from drug and alcohol addiction because one person decides to drink.”
She said others in the programme were “thriving”.
“Why should that opportunity be taken away from them because of one person’s actions.”
Winston Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister, said one person reoffending “does not mean that the idea is a bad idea at all”.
“We wouldn’t have backed it unless we thought it was going to be successful. It will be.
“The problem is you have all these people shouting it down before it’s even started and they have no alternative plans at all to turn that sort of juvenile crime around.”
He believed the legislation should still go ahead before the pilot ended.
The boot camp policy attracted significant criticism when it was announced during the election campaign, with Opposition politicians pointing to previous boot camps that had little impact on reoffending.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
