[ad_1]
I Recently Posted report into abuse in care, and how its release was inconsistent with National’s recent opening of a new boot camp facility.
This got me thinking about the National Party’s history of obsession with boot camps. A quick look at old Standard posts shows that the obsession reached the point of obsession.
In 2005, the then national leader Don Brash proposes boot camps for juvenile offenders As national policy. He persists despite the fact that boot camps have been tried for 21 years as a correctional training tool and have failed miserably with a 94.5% recidivism rate. Unfortunately, the main effect of boot camps is to produce faster and healthier criminals.
Then in 2008, as part of its election policy, the National Party announced Fresh Start Policydescribed as a “revolutionary, intensive, one-year program designed to instill discipline and address the root causes of crime; includes up to three months of residential training at locations such as military installations.”
In 2009, its Boot Camp Policy Announcement.
The military-style camp program will target 40 of the most serious young offenders and provide up to three months of residential training using military-type facilities or training methods.”
The program did not go as smoothly as expected, with half of the boot camp participants reoffending within the first 12 months of their release. So ended the brief surge.
and country Trying to keep it secret. So much for transparency.
In 2018, Peter Gluckman, John Key’s chief scientific adviser Said this:
Harsh punishments have little deterrent effect on young people. Boot camps don’t work, and “scare” programs have been shown to increase crime. Juvenile offenders may find the “thrill” or emotional “high” of violent crime and the social rewards (such as admiration from peers) more important to them than the fear of getting caught or facing social disapproval. Young people need other prosocial ways to gain participation and social acceptance.
But that hasn’t stopped National from trying to push the policy again at the 2023 election. By now, the boot camp policy has been tried many times and has deteriorated significantly.
They did not specify where the money would come from, only saying it would be drawn from existing budgets.
There is no doubt why This is happeningRadio New Zealand reports:
Hundreds of charities and non-governmental organisations that provide care for vulnerable children and families say they are waiting to be told by Oranga Tamariki whether funding will continue, fearing young people will be put at greater risk.
Oranga Tamariki funds a range of programs delivered by external care providers, including child counselling, school social workers, teenage parent units, wrap-around support for neurodivergent children, support for foster parents, and domestic and sexual violence programs.
The contract ended at the end of June – and some suppliers received emails saying it would not be renewed.
Others have been told they will do so but have yet to receive any confirmation.
You might think the military is an important part of the National Party’s plan, but they don’t want to know about the policy, and clearly indicate Defence Force staff will not manage or staff the camp.
Labor spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime said the policy was a waste of resources and misguided.
from The Herald:
While in government, Labour developed the Circuit Breaker scheme, which aims to achieve this. The scheme involves agencies within 48 hours of a young person committing an offence, meaning support services can be provided immediately to children and their families.
The program works. In a briefing to the new National Government, it had a 76 per cent success rate, meaning more than three quarters of participants did not reoffend.
Youth advocates and the current administration have acknowledged its effectiveness, but despite the success of this approach, they have chosen to invest in military-style boot camps. They have rejected decades of evidence and expert advice and turned a facile marketing slogan into a harmful policy.
As with the three-strikes policy, the state never has an irrational itch it won’t scratch for political gain. Despite the reality of the situation.
This is a profoundly cynical politics that involves the repetition of sloganeering policies that have been proven to fail time and again, and which are being funded by cutting services that actually deliver good results.
related articles
[ad_2]
Source link
