Military style discipline has been tried before and dumped. The experts say they do not work.
However, next year National will make sure 40 of the country's worst and repeat young offenders do time with the army for an old fashioned sorting out.
“At the end of the day, these are not good kids,” says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett. “We want to turn them around so they do not become the adult offenders of tomorrow.”
Rita Croskery's son, Michael Choy, was killed after being set upon while delivering pizza. One of his attackers was Bailey Kurariki who was just 12-years-old at the time.
Mrs Croskery supports the tougher approach.
“They’ll be taken away from their dysfunctional families, for a start,” says Croskery. “They’ll have a purpose.”
The boot camps will start next year and a judge will decide who goes. The young people will spend three months in camp and face an intensive nine months of supervision afterwards.
Bennett says she accepts 40 is not many to start with, but the supervision afterwards is crucial.
“We’re not actually going to have these young people in a military style camp for three months and then throw them back out on the streets,” continues Bennett.
While Labour says boot camps do not work, Croskery says it is worth a try.
“The main problem with boot camps is you tend to turn out faster fitter young criminals with the same bad attitudes,” says Labour leader Phil Goff. “Every piece of research that’s every been done on boot camps shows that they have not worked.”
“The softly-softly approach has not worked,” says Croskery.
National will also force 12- and 13-year-olds into the youth court to face longer sentences.
Overall the moves will cost $35 million to implement.
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