Earlier this year, John Key suggested military-style boot camps as a "solution" for troubled youth - and was roundly criticised for proposing a solution which had been empirically shown to be counterproductive. But there are other problems with such institutions as well. In the Listener last month, Matt Nippert explored the history of one such institution - the Whakapakari Youth Trust on Great Barrier Island. CYFS sent violent youths there for twenty years to learn wilderness survival skills and wean them off drugs. But the camp had a culture of sadism, violence, abuse and neglect - some of it serious:
Most of the 19 former residents interviewed for an official CYF report on Whakapakari said they saw serious assaults. One alleged several sexual violations by a staff member, but this young person “was too scared to lay [a] complaint with police”.The camp was eventually closed after a supervisor "disciplined" a child in his care by beating him in the head with a stick. And CYFS is now facing multiple lawsuits from former residents alleging violence and repeated sexual assault. No doubt the "Sensible" Sentencing Trust thinks this is all OK, and less than these kids deserved - but civilised people should be absolutely horrified. And John Key wants to bring this back? No thanks.Transcripts of social workers’ interviews conducted with residents described assaults by staff that were so commonplace that slang terms had been coined to differentiate between kicks. A “toehack” was a kick up the backside, while a “punt” was a kick sideways. Some youngsters were deputised as enforcers, known as the “Flying Squad”, to physically discipline their peers.
