Labour’s Children’s spokesperson, Willow Jean Prime, says the Government is being hard headed with its boot camp agenda despite evidence showing youth crime is going down.
Ten youth offenders aged from 15 to 18 are about to enter a pilot military-style camp run by Oranga Tamariki at a Palmerston North youth justice facility.
It’s estimated to cost $100,000 for each rangatahi.
Ms Prime says Labour’s circuit breaker programme where serious offenders were fast tracked to wraparound community support programmes within 48 hours of being picked up has a 76 percent success rate.
“Community providers I am talking to are saying that for a small amount of the money they are investing in these boot camps and these 10 young people they could be supporting those programmes that are proving to be working in the communities,” she says.
