Children’s Commissioner Jane Searle is warning that military-style academies risk applying a punitive response to young people whose offending is often connected to trauma, abuse, neglect and complex needs.
Her warning follows Parliament passing legislation establishing a Young Serious Offender regime, including the use of military-style academies as part of the Government’s response to serious youth offending.
Searle supports greater investment in young people with the most complex needs and agrees stronger intervention is needed to reduce serious offending.
But she says that investment should be directed towards therapeutic, trauma-informed and evidence-based rehabilitation rather than military-style approaches.
The Commissioner says many mokopuna entering the youth justice system have already experienced significant adversity, while some also live with neurodisabilities and other complex needs.
The issue is particularly significant for Māori, who remain disproportionately represented throughout the youth justice system.
Searle is also questioning how the legislation fits alongside lessons from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which documented the devastating consequences of punitive and harmful institutional environments for generations of children and young people.
She says the crossover between state care and youth justice makes it especially important that new interventions do not repeat approaches capable of causing further harm to already traumatised young people.
The Government argues its Young Serious Offender regime is designed for a small group of repeat and serious offenders and combines greater accountability with rehabilitation and intensive intervention.
With the legislation now passed, Searle says her office will closely monitor its implementation and continue listening to rangatahi within the youth justice and care systems.
For the Children’s Commissioner, the test will be whether the new system actually produces lasting change — because discipline alone cannot address the trauma and circumstances sitting behind serious offending.
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