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Source: ONE News -
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A row is developing between Labour and the Government over controversial "boot camp" legislation.
The Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders Amendment Bill gives the Youth Court new sentencing orders ranging from tight supervision to three-month stays in military-style camps.
If passed, it would enable the court to issue parenting orders and its jurisdiction would be extended to include 12 to 13-year-olds who committed serious crimes.
The bill is with a select committee for public submissions, and on Wednesday the Families Commission told MPs the camps will do little to reduce youth offending and in some cases may increase it.
Labour's youth justice spokeswoman, Jacinda Ardern, used the commission's submission to attack Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, who is responsible for the bill.
"The boot camps were never anything more than a political charade, designed to create an impression during the election campaign that National would be tough on crime," Ardern said.
"Paula Bennett inherited the job and is now struggling to cope with the criticism she's copping."
Bennett said the Families Commission and other organisations which have criticised the bill in front of the select committee are missing the point.
"The narrow focus on boot camps by the media and critics has, I believe, misled the public," she said.
"Let me make it clear: we are not lurching back to the days of packing all bad kids off to boot camps en masse for `corrective training'. That has been tried and failed, here and elsewhere."
Bennett said the military-style "activity camps" will be fundamentally different from past models, just one of many new options available to the courts for dealing with the worst young offenders.
The select committee is still hearing submissions and the bill has to pass its second reading, committee stage and third reading before it becomes law.
