Nationals want boot camps to produce ‘healthier, fitter, faster’ criminals

The National Party’s reliance on ‘boot camps’ as a major plank of their juvenile justice policy shows just how out of touch they are, Minister for Youth Lindy Nelson-Carr said today.

Ms Nelson-Carr said extensive and careful research had found that ‘boot camps’ had no positive effect – they did nothing to prevent or reduce youth offending.

“Setting up ‘boot camps’ to rehabilitate young offenders has been tried in parts of the United States, Canada and New Zealand,” Ms Nelson-Carr said.

“In New Zealand, they were abandoned in 2002 after 25 years because they resulted in a 92 per cent re-offending rate – the highest rate of any sentence given.

“New Zealand’s Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said last month that sentencing youthful offenders to boot camp was ‘arguably the least successful sentence in the western world’.

“He went on to say it made them ‘healthier, fitter, faster, but they were still burglars, just harder to catch’ and he described boot camps as ‘a spectacular, tragic, flawed failure’.

“The fact is a number of Australian and international studies, including one by the very credible Australian Institute of Criminology in 2005, found such camps may, in fact, increase recidivism in young people.

“The Nationals say they also want to take away the principle of detention as a last resort for young offenders. This principle is a well-established sentencing principle in Queensland legislation, in other Australian jurisdictions and in international law.

“Removing this principle would put our state out of step with other Australian states and territories, and breach international law.”

Ms Nelson-Carr said the Bligh Government has a range of proven options to address youth justice issues.

“We have prevention, detention, supervision, rehabilitation, diversion, police and court services to deal with young people who commit or are alleged to have committed offences,” she said.

“These are tried, proven and effective approaches to supporting and rehabilitating troubled youth.

“Youth justice conferencing – an important mechanism where young offenders meet with victims, families and police and agree on ways to repair the harm their crime has caused – consistently achieves a 97 per cent satisfaction rate from all participants, including the victims.

“The Bligh Government wants troubled juveniles to become contributing members of society.

“The Nationals would rather throw them into jail and toss away the keys.”

Media contact: Minister Nelson-Carr’s office 3235 4280