A youth offender rehabilitation programme to be closed down got funding which was "out of kilter" with other programmes, Justice Minister Simon Power said today.The pilot programme for young offenders at Te Hurihanga in Hamilton will close in fo
A youth offender rehabilitation programme to be closed down got funding which was "out of kilter" with other programmes, Justice Minister Simon Power said today.
The pilot programme for young offenders at Te Hurihanga in Hamilton will close in four months after three years in operation and Mr Power said it would be replaced by a more cost effective programme.
The community-based treatment programme for male offenders aged between 14 and 17 started in April 2007 and the pilot period was due to end by March 31 but had been given a three-month extension to finish up by June 30.
Only eight of 23 young offenders who started the nine to 18-month programme graduated and five had pulled out. The cost to date has been just over $5 million.
Averaged out the cost for each graduate was $630,000 but when divided by 23 it was more like $220,000.
Labour leader Phil Goff this morning said the programme was a last chance intervention programme for troubled youths.
"Where is the sense in scrapping Te Hurihanga when the first graduates only came out in December 2008 and judges and police have described it as a 'godsend'?" he said on TV3's Sunrise programme.
"The programme was preventing young offenders becoming hardened criminals."
Mr Goff said the programme was an example of tackling the drivers of crime which the Government said was a priority and it took time to be effective.
"It's about spending time with these youths and changing nearly every aspect of their lives to ensure they are law-abiding Kiwis... Now National is promising young offenders its military style Fresh Start programme. That concept has been tried and failed and only produced fitter and faster criminals."
Mr Power said it was not an easy decision to cancel the programme but he did not think it was sustainable.
"In the end I took the view that an alternative programme with a similar focus and learning from the Te Hurihanga programme was the right way to go."
It cost about $100,000 a year to keep an offender in jail but Mr Power said there were other programmes that the troubled youths would be able to go to.
"I am not persuaded that it is the only programme that could do that and I am not persuaded that those costs are the only way to return the investment to make sure people don't end up in prison. The concerning thing about the programme itself wasn't that it wasn't doing what it said it would do, it was just simply a matter of cost...
"Those sort of numbers were out of kilter with any other equivalent programme that I saw."
Mr Power said a good programme could be put in place instead.
"I am hopeful the open tendering process which will occur after we've given the existing programme an extension of three months ... will reflect the ethos and the philosophy of the Te Hurihanga programme but in a more cost effective way."
The high cost was partly due to a high staff to youth rate.
