If You Find Something That Works, Can It

If ever proof were needed that this Government has its law and order priorities all wrong, this is it.

A world-leading Hamilton youth offender programme that has achieved zero reoffending to date will be closed in June because of its cost.

Te Hurihanga, a $1.4 million facility opened in 2007 for eight of the region's worst young offenders, had the backing of Youth Court judges, Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and the late Maori Queen Te Atairangikaahu.

But Justice Minister Simon Power and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said yesterday it had cost $5 million so far, including construction costs, and only eight young people had graduated from it. An evaluation, also made public yesterday, found that none of the graduates had reoffended up to July last year.

Power's been on the radio this morning banging on about the $600,000 average cost per graduate for the programme. But this figure is a deliberately misleading, because it includes the facility's construction costs (a one-off), does not take into account the fact more offenders are about to graduate, and fails to consider the positive influence the programme may have had on those who didn't graduate.

We also know that it is extraordinarily expensive to imprison people. So it is hard to believe that the true cost per graduate would be anything like the ongoing cost to the taxpayer in dealing with someone who continues to offend. The direct costs include use of police and court resources, incarceration costs, and legal aid.

And those are just the direct financial costs of crime.

Power says another programme will replace Te Hurihanga. The new programme will be cheaper and may prove to be less effective. So we will still end up paying.