Bootcamp revival for ‘bad’ youth
National is promising to create a new bootcamp for youth offenders at the Waiouru army camp.
Making the announcement in Auckland, Prime Minister Bill English said National would crack down on the most serious young offenders and hold ‘‘negligent parents’’ to account.
‘‘It’s become clear that there is a small group of around 150 very serious young offenders for whom our Youth Justice System in its current form just doesn’t work,’’ English said.
‘‘These are 14 to 17-year-olds who have committed very serious offences with sentences up to 14 years - that is serious assault, sexual assaults, aggravated robbery and murder.
English announced a $60 million package to deal with the most violent and recidivist young offenders.
Justice Minister Amy Adams laid out the details: ‘‘We will introduce a young serious offender (YSO) classification which will see this very small group of the most hardened young offenders dealt with in ways that better reflect the seriousness of their crimes and help ensure fewer people are victimised.
‘‘As a part of this, we will establish a Defence-led junior training academy based at the Waiouru training camp. Judges will be able to order YSOS who commit serious subsequent offences to attend the academy for one year.
‘‘The academy will support YSOS to address problems like addiction or a lack of literacy and numeracy skills, helping them lead better lives while keeping the public safe.
‘‘Those who fail to complete their time at the academy will serve a commensurate adult sentence of imprisonment instead,’’ she said.
‘‘These are young people who have been in and out of Youth Court but have shown no willingness or ability to change their behaviour.
‘‘We are not prepared to just sit back and allow their victims to keep racking up until they reach adulthood.’’
It was estimated about 50 serious youth offenders per year would be sent to the academy. The scheme would cost about $30m over four years. Other changes under the YSO classification would include tightening bail requirements, increasing the use of electronic monitoring, and removing the ability for the most serious young offenders to be released early from any youth justice custodial sentences.
A new National Government would also look at the role parents played in their children’s spiral into an early life of crime.
‘‘In many cases, young people who offend have few good role models or are given the freedom to commit crimes,’’ Adams said.
‘‘We will make changes to hold their parents to account, including by allowing police to issue instant infringement notices to parents of children under 14 walking the streets without supervision between 12am and 5am.
‘‘In addition, any breaches of court orders directed at a young person’s parent will be recorded on that parent’s criminal record. A loophole means this is not the case currently.’’
Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett - who introduced different types of bootcamps as former police minister - rejected claims they had not worked previously.
‘‘They were very different, they were the [military-style activity] camps and they were within the Youth Justice facilities.
‘‘Actually they did lower offending for that hard group, but this is very different where you’re looking at a suspended sentence for up to a year.’’
The remaining $30m of the $60m package would support programmes run by community groups to reduce offending ‘‘because we know local solutions are often the best, and we want to give smaller or rural communities the opportunity to take further action’’.