Young recidivists who have slipped through the cracks won’t have to break through the bars under youth-crime initiative
The trade news from Damien O’Connor was unambiguously positive – although outfits like Greenpeace might find cause for complaint.
It was that New Zealand has won its trade dispute with Canada over access for dairy products under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free trade agreement.
Canada’s breaching of its commitments had resulted in dairy industry losing out on an estimated $120 million in revenue from the Canadian market in the past three years.
To what extent our society will benefit from the law-and-order news delivered by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis and Police Minister Ginny Andersen remains to be seen.
They are enthusing about the launch of ”an intensive programme for the country’s most prolific young offenders” which will result in up to 60 recidivist young offenders and their families being assigned “an intensive support social worker to develop an immediate plan for the young person and provide ongoing support”.
The reference to our “most prolific young offenders” suggests the ministers are talking about persistent recidivists.
The ministers say the plan
“… will be specifically tailored to the needs of the child and their family and could include mentoring, alcohol/drug treatment, support to navigate and access the housing and education systems, mental health support, and cultural support”.
This sounds like a scheme to keep the delinquents out of prison, even though Davis goes on to say:
“The public deserve to feel safe…”
He explains that the government’s work in this area
“… is designed to prevent further victimization by getting in early and breaking the cycle for a young offender.”
There is no suggestion the offenders will be securely locked up somewhere.
To the contrary, Kelvin Davis said:
“What has become clear is that there is a very small group of young offenders whose age and complex underlying issues means they are falling through the cracks despite best efforts.”
They are falling through the cracks, perhaps, because they aren’t being securely banged up behind bars through which they can’t easily slip.
“This initiative will provide the intensive social work needed, backed up by a local coordination team, whānau, and the community, to ensure the child gets the support they need immediately to help stop them reoffending again,” Kelvin Davis said.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen said that while the existing turnaround programmes were working well, more needs to be done for a small group of repeat offenders.
“That’s why we’re rolling out a more intensive version of the successful ‘Circuit Breaker’ fast track programme.”
Circuit Breaker has been successfully rolled out in four locations and has seen 77 per cent of children not re-offending, Andersen said.
But (we are entitled to ask) has it been rolled out for our “most prolific young offenders”?
Andersen drew attention – fair enough – to “National’s own chief science advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman” who has said “Boot camps do not work, and ‘scared straight’ programmes have been shown to increase crime.”
Under the Circuit Breaker programme, when a child offends their information is immediately shared by Police with Oranga Tamariki and an agreed plan on how to deal with and support the young person confirmed in 48 hours in collaboration with community groups.
Currently operating in South and West Auckland, Auckland City, Hamilton, and Christchurch, it will soon expand to four new locations.
“We know that these turnaround programmes work – and we’re committed to ensuring that young offenders get the opportunity to get back onto the straight and narrow,” Ginny Andersen said.
She said this follows a number of initiatives already taken by the Government to respond to youth crime, including a new offence specifically targeting ram raiding, a new aggravating factor for an adult to use young people to commit a crime, an aggravated sentence for posting crimes online and requiring young offenders to attend education programmes or do community activities.
To what extent our society will benefit from the law-and-order news delivered by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis and Police Minister Ginny Andersen remains to be seen.
They are enthusing about the launch of ”an intensive programme for the country’s most prolific young offenders” which will result in up to 60 recidivist young offenders and their families being assigned “an intensive support social worker to develop an immediate plan for the young person and provide ongoing support”.
The reference to our “most prolific young offenders” suggests the ministers are talking about persistent recidivists.
The ministers say the plan
“… will be specifically tailored to the needs of the child and their family and could include mentoring, alcohol/drug treatment, support to navigate and access the housing and education systems, mental health support, and cultural support”.
This sounds like a scheme to keep the delinquents out of prison, even though Davis goes on to say:
“The public deserve to feel safe…”
He explains that the government’s work in this area
“… is designed to prevent further victimization by getting in early and breaking the cycle for a young offender.”
There is no suggestion the offenders will be securely locked up somewhere.
To the contrary, Kelvin Davis said:
“What has become clear is that there is a very small group of young offenders whose age and complex underlying issues means they are falling through the cracks despite best efforts.”
They are falling through the cracks, perhaps, because they aren’t being securely banged up behind bars through which they can’t easily slip.
“This initiative will provide the intensive social work needed, backed up by a local coordination team, whānau, and the community, to ensure the child gets the support they need immediately to help stop them reoffending again,” Kelvin Davis said.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen said that while the existing turnaround programmes were working well, more needs to be done for a small group of repeat offenders.
“That’s why we’re rolling out a more intensive version of the successful ‘Circuit Breaker’ fast track programme.”
Circuit Breaker has been successfully rolled out in four locations and has seen 77 per cent of children not re-offending, Andersen said.
But (we are entitled to ask) has it been rolled out for our “most prolific young offenders”?
Andersen drew attention – fair enough – to “National’s own chief science advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman” who has said “Boot camps do not work, and ‘scared straight’ programmes have been shown to increase crime.”
Under the Circuit Breaker programme, when a child offends their information is immediately shared by Police with Oranga Tamariki and an agreed plan on how to deal with and support the young person confirmed in 48 hours in collaboration with community groups.
Currently operating in South and West Auckland, Auckland City, Hamilton, and Christchurch, it will soon expand to four new locations.
“We know that these turnaround programmes work – and we’re committed to ensuring that young offenders get the opportunity to get back onto the straight and narrow,” Ginny Andersen said.
She said this follows a number of initiatives already taken by the Government to respond to youth crime, including a new offence specifically targeting ram raiding, a new aggravating factor for an adult to use young people to commit a crime, an aggravated sentence for posting crimes online and requiring young offenders to attend education programmes or do community activities.
Latest from the Beehive
6 SEPTEMBER 2023
Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor has welcomed the CPTPP Panel’s ruling in favour of New Zealand in our dispute against Canada, a significant win for our primary sector exporters.
The next phase of the Government’s response to youth crime is underway, with an intensive programme for the country’s most prolific young offenders launched today in Auckland.
The Government has agreed to a request from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 for extra three months to deliver its final report.
Under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), this country secured new dairy quota access accounting for 3.3% of Canada’s market – tens of thousands of tonnes per year in key dairy products for New Zealand’s exporters.
But Damien O’Connor says Canada was breaching its commitments.
The Panel which considered our complaint found that New Zealand exporters were not able to fully utilise Canada’s 16 dairy tariff rate quotas and that Canada was granting priority access to their own domestic dairy processors.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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