Closing Te Hurihanga Misguided - academic

Leading Criminologist, Dr Gabrielle Maxwell from the Institute of Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, says that the Government’s plan to close Te Hurihanga is misguided.

“Te Hurihanga was based on research into what works best. It was set up with the support of both the private sector and the public sector. To date evaluation has shown that it is succeeding. Estimates of cost effectiveness by Price Waterhouse indicate that the programme will break even after five years, and save substantial sums in the longer term. The figures quoted by the Government need to be set against the likely cost - both social and fiscal - of the offending by this high risk group together with the costs of trials and imprisonment which are likely to cost more than $100,000 per annum.”

“Alternative programmes recently initiated by this government have yet to prove their effectiveness. My discussions with these indicate that they feel that they have not yet had a sufficient investment in terms of staff and resources for follow up to be sure that they can fulfil expectations of them.”

“For the most part, those placed with Te Hurihanga are the children who have been subject to childhood abuse and neglect, who have been unfortunate enough never to have had a home that can nurture them, people who will care for them and help them grow and the opportunity to develop their talents in a supportive environment. Punishing them and shaming them has not succeeded. Research both here and internationally shows that placing them in residential institutions and prisons only increases the re-offending rate.

Te Hurihanga is the closest we have ever come to a truly successful approach – to cancel it now before the return on the investment can be realised would be fiscally irresponsible. But it even more seriously it would increase the chances that these young people will offend in future and thus be a continuing danger to the safety of the community.”

ENDS

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