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By adding your details below you are signing our petition demanding the Government stop its Bootcamps scheme.  
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In Aotearoa we want the best for our children. Wrapping aroha and support around young people who have run into trouble gives them the opportunity to set out a new path, and is the best way to ensure positive long-term outcomes for them and their community.  

However, the coalition Government plan to continue their misguided tough on crime rhetoric funnelling more of our kids into a broken system that doesn’t work. 

 These punitive bootcamps only stand to further the harm and trauma these young people have experienced. There is no evidence to suggest that bootcamps lead to a reduction in re-offending. In fact, evaluations of the previous programme found that half of the graduates reoffended within four months, and within 12 months, 86 percent had reoffended. 

Petition Begins 

The Green Party is calling for an end to bootcamps. We have tried bootcamps before and they have furthered harm, abuse and trauma for some of the most vulnerable young people in our country.  

Young people who have offended have often been exposed to, or in many cases victim to, poverty, violence and family harm. These types of experiences have long lasting impacts on developing brains, which in turn can lead to impulsive behaviour, a lack of rational decision-making, vulnerability to peer pressure and a lack of emotional regulation.  

Despite Minister Chhour’s claims that these bootcamps are different, the evidence remains unchanged: there is no therapeutic benefit to a bootcamp or military environment for these kids. 

We are calling on you to ditch this failed bootcamp experiment and invest in what works – restorative justice, and community wraparound support for these young people and their families. 

Punishment will not help these young people. Aroha will. 

Petition Ends