Even though it’s just been a few days since the Abuse in Care Inquiry report was released, the Government needs to be a bit quicker on the uptake and should be pulling the plug on its boot camp trial. 

It won’t do that, though. In fact, any government would be the same. Because, if there’s one thing politicians at all ends of the political spectrum are terrified of, it’s being accused of flip-flopping. 

Can you imagine the noise if Children's Minister Karen Chour had come on the radio this morning and said “look, after reading through that report we got the other week, we think now isn’t the time to be sending kids to boot camps.” 

This is the same minister who said last week that she couldn’t guarantee kids won’t be abused while they’re at boot camp. 

Which she had to say, didn’t she? It was the only thing she could say. Because how could she possibly say anything different? 

Back to this morning, though. And, instead of saying the Government didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes of the past, she was saying how her life was turned around when she was young by the influence of just one person, and she hopes the same thing will happen at boot camp. 

But now is not the time to be getting into boot camps. Here’s why.  

In the abuse inquiry report that came out last week, there are 138 recommendations for the Government to consider. But it’s recommendations 70-to-75 that I think are relevant to boot camps. 

And they relate to doing away with institutional environments for young people. Minimising them and, eventually, eliminating them altogether. 

It says the Government should prioritise closing facilities that “perpetuate the institutional environments and practices that led to historic abuse and neglect in care.” 

Which is what a boot camp is, isn’t it? An institutional environment. Similar to the boys homes or borstals of old, where some of this shocking abuse happened. 

The Prime Minister is saying “no, no,no, no, no. Our boot camps will be different.” He’s saying that, this  time around, the boot camps will have psychologists and social workers working with 10 young people who’ll be there. 

They won’t be isolated from family. All that stuff. But why would you still go ahead with boot camps when this report is telling you not to?    There was an excellent editorial piece in the NZ Herald at the weekend which quoted the report saying: “Research demonstrates that ‘boot camps’ and other harsh ‘short, sharp, shock’ interventions for youth are ineffective at reducing repeat offending”. That’s in last week’s report. 

The NZ Herald article also mentioned a study in 2018 by former chief science adviser, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, which said “boot camps do not work and ‘scared straight’ programmes have been shown to increase crime”. 

But the Government isn’t listening. Because it’s got a coalition agreement to maintain.  

So there’s no way it’s going to tell everyone up at boot camp that it’s had a change of heart. But it should.