Boot Camp Changes Welcomed, But Military Style 'Still A Concern'

Friday, 14 June 2024, 5:00 pm
Article: RNZ

Soumya Bhamidipati, Journalist

Rehabilitation experts are hoping the government's young offender boot camps will work better with a greater emphasis on transitioning teens back into the community.

RNZ has revealed a pilot will kick off on 29 July, when 10 of the country's most serious young offenders will move into a military-style academy for three months - a significantly shorter timeline than the one-year stay campaigned on by the National Party.

Following their residential stay, the 15- to 17-year-olds would be transitioned back into the community over a nine-month period. Each youth would be assigned a mentor for the entire 12 months.

David Graham, chief executive of the Billy Graham Youth Foundation, said he was heartened to see more emphasis on transitioning the teenagers back into society.

"According to the research, that's going to have a greater impact than investing more heavily into the residential component and then seeing the transition period as a later piece of work," he said.

"If that is likewise invested well with the right people, the right passion, the right expertise ... I think that if you've got a 12-month initiative and a quarter of that is spent in residential and the other three-quarters is spent supporting transition back into the community, then yes, on paper I think that's got a much better chance of succeeding when compared to previous iterations of the boot camps."

The ministry tasked with running the boot camps, Oranga Tamariki, emailed selected non-government agencies on Monday, asking if they were interested in providing intensive one-on-one mentoring both at the boot camp and during the transition.

Graham said his organisation had not been contacted, but he was pleased to hear the government was looking to involve other frontline providers, whose work with those young people was "their bread and butter".

Victoria University forensic psychology lecturer Simon Davies agreed more community-based rehabilitation would only improve the programme, but said he still had some reservations about the military aspect.

"It's still a concern that there's a focus on military-style activities. We know from all the evidence that that type of military discipline approach hasn't been effective in the past."

Three months in any programme might also be too short to make a lasting difference, Davies said, so the programme's success would depend on what was involved in the nine-month transition phase.

"Even if it's done really well and it's trauma-informed and therapeutic, that sort of short time period to turn around people who might be entrenched or have really severe difficulties and need a lot of support, it's pretty unlikely to have a major impact in that short a time period."

With only six weeks until the pilot began, both Graham and Davies were calling for more details to be released publicly.

"I'd like to see exactly what the process has been and who the specific organisations are that they're reaching out to and the specific people that they're potentially going to contract to run these services, because there is some really strong expertise in New Zealand in the rehabilitation field and things like that. I think the more transparent the process could be would give it a better chance."

Oranga Tamariki and Minister for Children Karen Chhour have both refused to answer RNZ's questions about the new plan, including where the academy would be located and who would be involved.

"We can confirm the detailed design and development of the Military Style Academy Pilot is progressing well and we intend to be able to share more information publicly in the coming weeks," Oranga Tamariki said in a statement.

When pressed, it added: "We acknowledge the public interest in the Military Style Academy Pilot and can confirm further details will be shared in advance of the Pilot launch."

A statement from the minister's office said a further announcement about the programme was due later in June.

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