Shirley Johnson’s Post

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Youth Justice Consultant and Advocate

Minister Chhour wants the first BOOT camp up and running for our most serious offenders by mid-year. The only way this is practically possible is the retrofitting and repurposing of a YJ residence and the development of a hastily constructed cut and paste programme. It could not be located on an army base because the co-location with the army would be problematic. Also a facility for serious young offenders would need a secure perimeter barbed fence of around 5 metres in height with a seperate area large enough to safely conduct core military exercises such as cardio, strength, obstacle courses, high wires, marching etc. Accommodation couldn't be in barracks because these are high risk young people. It would need to be of the same security standard as Youth Justice Residences. This means building specialist concrete buildings, with heavy locked doors and close surveillance to cater for the 24/7 needs of these young people.  There would also need to be a large gymnasium, fields, classrooms and specialist equipment. All costing around $40-50 million. The number of staff needed to run a boot camp would be similar, or more, to a YJ residence. Typically, in total there are more staff than young people, because of regulated staffing ratios and its 24/7, three shift a day operation. The allocated $25 million per year will be easily spent on staffing costs and operations. Where will these highly trained, specialist people come from to manage, lead and staff the boot camp? Why has a national recruitment drive not started to recruit the 100 plus people? With prisons and residences both struggling to recruit and retain staff, will this initiative further deplete their staff? Adding to this, the public has been assured that the boor camps will not just be about marching around, rather the programme will include education, cognitive -behavioural programmes and therapeutic interventions to address addictions, trauma and mental health issues. It is deeply concerning if the plan is for current residential workers to staff the camps, when there are major unresolved leadership and staffing issues in all our residences, as highlighted in a recent independent residential review: “There is a profound misalignment between the complex & high needs of young people and the relatively unskilled workforce. There is a national shortage of social workers, a high workforce churn and poor performance management and accountability systems. Poorly trained staff are often left to interpret policies themselves, creating dangerous environments". The public is entitled to greater transparency on what is being proposed. If its a retrofit and repurposing of an already struggling residence, is this ethical at even the most basic level?  And finally, is a “got to try something” a valid reason to develop a programme that will at best achieve poor or no results, but at worst continue our shocking legacy of damaging another generation of our most vulnerable.

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Jolene Cartwright

Co-General Manager at TYLA (Turn Your Life Around) Trust

6mo

It is disappointing for us in this sector to hear about this via Government media announcement. The lack of transparency immediately is a cause of concern, let alone that there has been no consultation process that I have seen, been invited to, or asked to contribute to. Yet on the other hand we are being told that currently, Oranga Tamariki is having to cut costs and limit expenditure to providers, and that they are not able to inform us yet of what contracts in the YJ space from 1st July will look like. However, the bold statement that the boot camps will be up and running middle of this year, means there has certainly been a plan in place for some time.  I started working in the YJ space in 2003, so I have seen a lot of ideas come and go, reinvention of the wheel at times, and people and organizations chasing the money and we have all become isolated and siloed due to the competition created around the funding of services. Therefore, there is no collective voice when announcements like these happen, and if there is no collective professional voice, then we have no collective voice and advocacy for our rangatahi?

Meg Perkins

Consultant at First Stop FASD Consultancy

5mo

and how long will they keep these high risk young people in this military type environment? Can you just see mental health treatment - say for childhood trauma - being offered in the same environment as being marched around the rugby field by a tough taskmaster yelling "faster!"

Peter Joseph

Independent Cloud & Technology Advisor. Ex-AWS, Ex-Microsoft.

5mo

You mean it's not just possible to pitch up in a field and get some Sergeant majors to scream at them all day until they 'take responsibility' and 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps'? Who'd have thought! It's not at all like a government to push an ineffective and ill thought out solution they campaigned on for publicity or anything!

Rebecca Frankum

Consultant at the OECD working on upper secondary education transitions

6mo

Great analysis Shirley - huge risks to these young people and their futures if they are fed into a poorly designed, poorly resourced programme just to make a political point.

John McCaffery (O’Donnell )ANZEI

Hon Senior Lecturer Univ of Auckland

5mo

Kōrero Kia kaha Tino tika ana ou whakaaro rangatira Kia kaha.

Ron Murray

Writer, Editor, Communicator...retired but still active!

6mo

This should be a Herald piece Shirley. More holes in National's thinking.

Liz Kinley - Huirama

Professional Supervisor and Management Coach at Te Mauri Te Kore Ltd

6mo

Totally agree and fully support your analysis and your insightful questions Shirley.

Jolene Cartwright

Co-General Manager at TYLA (Turn Your Life Around) Trust

6mo

You cannot underestimate the importance of building relationships and connections and the time that this takes. Developing meaningful connections, understanding the often traumatic and generational harm, exploration of identity (or lack of), and how to envision and work on a journey to have hopes and dreams takes time. I am not sure where this will fit within the boot camp program they have announced. Why also is the solution to isolate our rangatahi and reinforce to them that they are the ‘problem’, have we forgotten about Section 208 (fa) of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 “that any measures for dealing with offending by a child or young person should so far as it is practicable to do so address the causes underlying the child’s or young person’s offending”…

Dean Spicer, CFA

Head of Sustainable Finance NZ at ANZ

6mo

To your last paragraph Shirley- if you have try something how about trying that has proven to be impactful and successful? Learn and adopt. That was the purpose of piloting in the first place! https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/07/20/social-bond-to-fund-youth-offending-service-hailed-a-success/

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