Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Iain Chapman. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seven of 10 participants in the Government’s 12-month bootcamp pilot went on to allegedly reoffend after leaving the in-house segment of the programme, Oranga Tamariki has confirmed.
The military style pilot involved 10 recidivist youth offenders spending three months in a youth justice residence in Palmerston North and nine months in the community under the eye of mentors and social workers.
During that time, one participant died in a three-vehicle accident, one was kicked off the programme and transferred to Corrections, and others absconded.
The pilot has drawn widespread criticism from Opposition parties, some academics and abuse survivors, who doubted the efficacy of bootcamp-style programmes and the abuse linked to previous iterations.
Scrutiny peaked after the death of one participant in a car crash near Tīrau in November, which was followed by two other participants absconding for several days and allegedly offending. Soon afterwards, another participant was also facing charges for alleged offending.
On Friday, Minister for Children Karen Chhour called the pilot a success despite the reoffending rate.
“Zero re-offending was never going to be realistic, but the goal of this programme has always been to provide meaningful supports and an opportunity for these young people to make better choices.
“We have seen marked improvements in these young people’s behaviour, attitudes to offending, and activities.”
Chhour said the aim of the pilot, part of National and Act’s 2023 election policy, was to trial a new way of working with offenders to reduce reoffending, and that “has been achieved and, in some cases, exceeded”.
“The families of these young people have expressed great appreciation for the support they have been provided, such as accessing stable housing and parenting support services.”
Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said the bootcamp was a “complete failure” and the initiative should be scrapped.
A bill enabling new military-style academy (MSA) facilities for young people with serious levels of offending is currently going through Parliament.
“We need clear answers on why the Government is still pressing ahead with its bill to enshrine bootcamps into law given it’s now obvious that they don’t work. They should scrap it.”
Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Iain Chapman said the reoffending rate needed to be taken in context of “what we’re dealing with”.
“You need to look at these kids as individuals, not as a statistic. There are far more nuances that sit underneath [that]. I look to the successes of these kids, I’ve spoken to them and I see hope.
“We were never going to completely turn around 10 out of 10. The reality is far more complex than that.”
Like Chhour, Chapman said it was “always expected” some reoffending would occur, “given these young people were selected for the pilot because they were identified as some of New Zealand’s most serious and persistent offenders”.
“For the majority of those that did offend, the offending was less serious and we saw longer periods of time without reoffending than we saw previously.”
Chapman said the participants had made “heartening changes”. One teen was looking at getting his tattoos removed which Chapman said was “remarkable”.
Some participants were playing sports and “effectively shunning their peer group from before, the negative influence of that and relying really heavily on sport”.
One teen had been selected for a regional team, he said.
“[They are] really turning their back on the life before and looking for really real positives, opportunities around employment, job experience and hospitality and labouring.”
The pilot, which all three coalition parties campaigned on during in the 2023 general election, was pitched as one of the Government’s key interventions to address recidivist youth crime.
It came under intense scrutiny late last year after the Herald revealed one of its participants died in a car accident before two others went missing for days.
Chapman said the death of one of the participant’s had a “big effect” on the other teens.
“We know for many of these young people this presented an immense challenge and the effect of losing a mate will be with them well after the pilot’s conclusion.”
Chapman said the teen was already friends with other participants before entering the pilot.
“They became very tight during the residential stay, but also to the team, to the staff who worked with that young man, they got to know him pretty well, living with him for three months.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.