A leading youth advocate is concerned young people sent to boot camps will come out the other end without crucial support.
David Graham - chief executive of the Billy Graham Youth Foundation - says that could leave those young people to go back to the same pathway that led them to trouble.
A trial of the Young Offender Military Academies is due to begin by the middle of the year, run at an Oranga Tamariki youth justice facilities. The Government's own advisors and David Graham convened a hui with 40 other youth organisations late last year to discuss the National Party's boot camp policy - one many critics have stated will not work.
They've since commissioned a literature review of research into boot camps - or military-style residential youth programmes - that found they can reduce re-offending within a short term but over the longer term the impact is little to none.
David speaks to Kathryn about the concerns his sector has with the programme.
Photo: Supplied / Josiah Nevell
