A new sentencing category – Young Serious Offender – will be introduced, allowing judges to send offenders to military-style academies.
It would apply to teenagers aged 14 to 17 years at the time of the offending, have had two offences punishable by imprisonment of 10 years or more proven in court are assessed as being likely to reoffend with previous interventions having proven unsuccessful.
Two offences with a maximum sentence of 10 years or more, will mean these are indeed very serious youth offenders. This will not be your ram raider or burglar. The types of offences that would qualify are:
- Murder
- Manslaughter
- Sexual Violation
- Wounding or Injuring with intent to cause GBH
- Aggravated Wounding
Labour’s children’s spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime said sending these kinds of children, many of whom would have experienced abuse of suffered deep trauma, to the camps could cause further harm.
“Forcing these kinds of children into boot camps is cruel and takes our youth rehabilitative system backwards.
I don’t know about you, but if they have raped two people before they turn 18, then the rehabilitation system isn’t working that well already!
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
4 comments:
One thing I'd like to know is how many of these super serious youth offenders exist. Watching the "news" last night, on TVNZ network lies, it made it look like these "boot camps" will be inundated.
My bus in auckland was storned by 10 or so youth, vaping, aggressive, entitled. They didn't pay, were intimidating passengers and the driver had to call the police to get them off the bus, presumably before one of the passengers were knived. I rang auckland transport the next day and they said
that their policy is to allow kids on the bus without paying. The woman I spoke to did not sound at all surprised when I told her what had happened. She had no sympathy at all and I felt like I was the one in the wrong.
I saw those same kids a few days later on manukau road at night, doing the haka really loudly on the footpath and throwing objects at cars. I doubt those kids would ever be sent to a bootcamp. How would you force them?
Our society and education system is in tatters. These offenders are just the tip of the iceberg of youth bad behaviour.
The home environment is important but our education system needs to be held responsible for producing undisciplined wayward youth as well. Current Progressive education includes ideology that is child- centered which means the child rules in the classroom. Respect for a learned authority, like a teacher is discouraged. Social -emotional learning uses up valuable academic learning time. I am not suggesting converting people back to Christianity but I do believe we need to consider the value of Traditional Education with a work ethic, teaching responsibility for actions, concern for others etc. This system also demands rigorous, direct and systematic learning which is discipline in itself.
We are now in the grip of another pseudo religion based on Marxism which is openly hostile to anything traditional, which they label oppressive. What we have now is depressing in producing uncontrollable, entitled, embittered ignorant youth with no moral compass.
All these comments are well and good but what you are seeing is the new NZ and social/cultural identity.
No doubt the French aristocrats felt the same way when the mob stormed the Bastille.
Things evolve from the old to the new especially when the old ways no longer meet the needs of the masses.
Que Sera.
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