Kerre Woodham: Belief in boot camp participants is vital

Ten young men will enter boot camp 2.0, more officially known as the Military Style Academy pilot. Not much is expected of these ten.  

Critics argue that boot camps are cruel and unusual punishment that don't work and have never worked, so they won't work for this lot. Supporters of the boot camps really just want to see a few of the worst oiks punished with no real expectation that they'll be able to make anything of themselves, so really not much is expected of these ten young men.  

It is true that previous boot camps haven't resulted in miraculous life transformations. 

 Reoffending rates were in the 80 and 90 percents - but then very few programs that try to address serious youth offending result in miraculous life transformations however you go about it, life just doesn't work like that.  

If you look at the evaluation from the agencies, there's a program called Pae Whakatupuranga - low completion rate for programme, majority of those completed reporting making progress. Yeah. What is that? Most of the programmes didn't have strenuous evaluation (shock me) under the previous administration, so it was very hard, though a lot of it was self-reporting.  

They're expensive - anything to do with serious youth offending is expensive. When it came to Youth Services, participants were slightly more likely to be on a benefit and more likely to be serving a community sentence one to two years after the programme.  

So, you have to say that's not working, scrap that one. What does seem to be working is the LSV’s. You know, similar to the boot camp style. Participants have increased income, employment, educational participation, less time in prison, but also less educational qualifications and more time on a benefit.  

So, anything to do with young people is expensive, there is no guarantee that these young people will be able to suddenly have a road to Damascus experience and think yes, a life of being a worthwhile member of the community appeals to me. The key to the success of this new iteration of boot camps will be in the transitioning back into the community. If these young people go straight back to the environment that shape them into young criminals, then there's really not much hope for them. But this is where boot Camp 2.0 differs. There will be nine months where they will receive wrap-around care and that will be absolutely vital. So too though is having someone believe in them believe that they have inherent worth, that their lives are worthwhile.  

Karen Chhour is the Children's Minister and the minister in charge of implementing the boot camps and as a former child of the state, she says every young person is worth trying to save.  

“All kids can be helped, Mike. I could have been one of those kids. I could have gone down the wrong path, but I had that one person in my life that told me I was worth something and helped me to steer myself down the right pathway. So hopefully we can put that right person in front of this young person and show them that that actually somebody does care about them.” 

That was Karen Chhour talking to Mike Hosking this morning. I'd love to know for those of you who have had some experience with kids who have gone off the straight and narrow or were never on it in the first place, is it possible to turn your life around? If you have had no role models in your family, upon which you can model a life? Where going to school is an expectation. Where succeeding as an expectation. Where fulfilling your potential as an expectation. And you have the sort of environment that proactively encourages you to be the best you can be, that that thinks you're amazing.  

If you don't have that when you start where on Earth do you get it from? Is that the teachers? It always used to be. Education and good teachers used to be able to save kids who were on a fast track to nowhere.  

Is it having somebody, an authority, look you in the eye and say you are worth more than the life you are living, we can help you change. Everybody wants the miraculous life transformation. Everybody wants the young people to believe in themselves, to believe they have something worthwhile to offer, to be able to participate in the community and take the best that the community can offer, while at the same time giving back. But it just doesn't work like that.  

These kids have got mountains to climb. There are people willing to help them. There are also, I think, people who are making a good dollar who are setting up programmes without any kind of stringent evaluation.  

So, I want to make sure that any kind of programme, including these boot camps works. And if the dollars aren't working, then put them somewhere else.   

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.