Failed boot camp experiment must end – Green Party

As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi.

“We risk repeating a shameful part of our history and ruining the lives of our rangatahi by bringing back boot camps,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Justice, Tamatha Paul.

“Our rangatahi need and deserve opportunities and support through their formative years so they can realise their full potential.

“Boot camps are simply another shallow attempt by this Government to win votes by appearing tough on crime at the expense of our communities. We know from past iterations of boot camps that they fail to help rangatahi turn their lives around and instead make things worse. Yet this Government is ploughing on anyway.

“The red flags around the boot camp policy are alarming, including a lack of safeguards around its military-style settings and the fact this legislation is being introduced before the pilot has even been evaluated. Just today we learnt that one young person in the pilot may have reoffended. This shows the shortcomings of this military-style approach.

“Have we not learnt anything from the Royal Inquiry into Abuse in State Care? There was a whole chapter on boot camps. Children endured horrendous abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to be protecting them.

“The Government apologised this month for abuse in state care but has ignored the resounding call from survivors to close the bootcamps. This makes that apology empty.

“The vast majority of young people who end up in the youth justice system have faced abuse or serious neglect, with backgrounds of trauma, poverty, mental health problems, learning disabilities and lack of support.

“We know what works for youth crime because we’ve done it before. Community wrap-around support services for at-risk youth were working well to reduce repeat offending before the Government cut their contracts,” says Tamatha Paul.