Prime Minister Christopher Luxon continues to support the Bootcamp-Military Academies despite the latest controversies surrounding the programme.
Two rangatahi were apprehended, along with several others, by police following a high-speed car chase in Kirikiriroa over the weekend.
The pair had absconded from their community programmes to attend the tangi of a fellow academy member who tragically died in an unrelated car accident.
Luxon says the programme was never going to be easy to implement.
“These are some of our toughest, most serious, persistent young offenders. And as we’ve said right from the beginning, it won’t be perfect, but actually what’s important is we do everything we can to make a very strong, powerful intervention in these young people’s lives,” says Luxon.
The community integration part of the program is expected to end around June.
