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Labour deputy leader and corrections spokesperson Kelvin Davis says National's election promise of bootcamps for young offenders may be good politics but it's bad policy – and the Government knows it.
Prime Minister Bill English is proposing to create a new category of young serious offenderS who can be sent to a defence-led junior training academy at Waiouru as an alternative to an adult sentence of imprisonment.
Mr Davis says National introduced a bootcamp policy in 2008, but it was quickly dropped when it became clear the approach didn't work.
"It touches an emotional response. People who have been harmed by these little ratbags want them to feel some sort of fear and pain all under the guise of good discipline and all those sorts of things but the research is adamant – they don't cause harm but they don't make any difference," he says.
Mr Davis says the $33 million earmarked for the bootcamp would be better spend on things that do work with young offnders, such as mentoring programmes and addressing the causes of crime.
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