No quick fix for youth reoffending, says Corrections boss

There is no quick fix to the high rate of young offenders committing more crimes, the leader of a recent review of Corrections schemes has said.

A study carried out by Corrections Department psychologists showed seven out of 10 youth offenders were callous and showed a lack of empathy or remorse.

Corrections manager of operations policy Richard Bargh said the study had prompted changes in programmes but he did not expect reoffending rates to drop overnight.

"We get the worst of the worst," Mr Bargh said. "If a young person gets sent to prison it's pretty serious. They have usually built up a significant background and history in terms of convictions.

"Their behaviours, even though they are quite young, are quite well entrenched already."

Mr Bargh said young offenders were different to adult offenders, who often reached a stage where they recognised their offending as wrong and decided they no longer wanted to continue as criminals.

"They are very, very easy to influence in terms of peer pressure and it's always very difficult to break that cycle," Mr Bargh said.

The Government gave the department funding for a pilot programme last year, which is about to get under way at Waikeria Prison.

It will see a youth worker assigned to follow up inmates once they are released from prison in an attempt to reduce reoffending rates.

The worker will draft case plans for youth inmates upon release and follow up to make sure they do not slip through the cracks.

A generic programme called Focus is currently run in youth wings around the country but Mr Bargh said, as a result of the study, fuller assessments would be carried out on youth inmates so programmes could better target specific issues.

But the reality was that most jurisdictions struggled to provide intensive quality interventions that actually worked for young offenders.

"In the past we've had very high reoffending rates with interventions like corrective training that had a phenomenal reoffending rate."

Corrective training was a considerable failure, and meant that any improvement in reoffending rates expected from new programmes introduced could be relative.

"I would expect to see some difference but it wouldn't be hugely significant at this stage. It would take a fair amount of time before we start to see any larger changes."

Mr Bargh said the department was also working with Child, Youth and Family to intervene before young offenders got to prison.

The "reducing youth reoffending programme" running in Auckland and Christchurch targets those that are on a pathway to spending the rest of their life in prison, Mr Bargh said.

Youths on the programme are either in CYF care or carrying out community-based sentences.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the study's results were not surprising given that by the time a youth got to jail it was too late.

"We all know with our own children if there are no consequences they will always push the limits," Mr O'Connor said.

Young offenders

* Youths have the highest rate of reoffending after release.

* A quarter are reimprisoned within six months of release.

* More than two-thirds are re-imprisoned within five years.

* The number of youths caught for violent offences increased 21 per cent between 1994 and 2001.