Boot Camp Results Provide Positive Lessons for the Future - Rethinking

“While the outcome of the government’s Fresh Start military-style activity camps will be seen as disappointing, there are some valuable learning’s to be had” says Kim Workman, Spokesperson for Rethinking Crime and Punishment. Minister Chester Borrows reported that 83% of those who completed the programme, reoffended after one year.

“This evaluation is the first that I am aware, which measured the seriousness and frequency of offending after release.  It showed that some of the offenders, while reoffending, were on a positive trajectory toward desistance from crime. This approach should be adopted across the criminal justice sector.  Reoffending rates and re-imprisonment rates are crude measures in the extreme, and tell us very little about the progress that offenders have made.  The reality is that very few offenders go ‘cold turkey’ and stop offending at a given point.  Desistance from crime is a journey , not an event.  What is more likely to happen is that offending reduces in serious and frequency over time, before fizzling out.  It makes good sense to measure the seriousness and frequency of future offending, as was done in this evaluation.” 

“The second and obvious thing is to accept that the great majority of serious young offenders with a range of complex needs and behaviours formed over more than a decade, are not going to be changed through attending a residential facility, regardless of how well designed the programme is.  When the MAC Camps were announced in 2008, it was a blatant appeal to the ‘get tough’ brigade, with initial promises of significant cuts in reoffending.   Over time, the original programme was modified through the influence of experts and Ministry of Social Development staff, who were familiar with the evidence-based research about ‘what works’.  In future, it is more likely that politicians will look to the experts and scientists first, before engaging in mindless public posturing.” 

“The Ministry of Social Development now knows how well the programme works and how much it costs.  It knows that if these young people go to prison, it will cost $92,000 a year.  They now have the opportunity to consider whether to persist with this programme, or reinvest that funding into other interventions, such as multi-systemic family therapy, which may provide a greater cost-benefit.”  

“The government should be congratulated for publishing an honest report, which does not attempt to mask the truth.  If we are to do better with offenders we need to be honest about our failures, and be given the freedom to learn from them.”

ENDS

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