Bishop asks for Govt rethink on Te Hurihanga

The head of the Anglican Church in the Waikato has called on the Government to reinstate the axed Te Hurihanga youth justice facility in Hillcrest.

Yesterday Anglican Bishop of Waikato David Moxon wrote to Justice Minister Simon Power asking that the programme be continued.

The move was reinforced by Fairfield resident Karyn Knight launching a petition calling for the axing of full funding to be reversed. At the same time emails and letters were being sent to the Prime Minister, Mr Power, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and other MPs about the issue which has struck a chord in Hamilton.

But the pressure comes as Youth Horizons – which runs Te Hurihanga – announced this week that four of its eight graduates had reoffended after completing the programme.

Initially police data showed none of the eight had committed new crimes in the first 10 months following discharge of the first graduates.

Youth Horizons board chairman David Edwards said he was still confident of the programme's value. "At the end of the day it's still incredibly successful."

Archbishop Moxon said the Anglican diocese, which championed the nine to 18-month intensive course, was disappointed at the Government's decision to end the pilot programme in June this year.

The church, which owns the land where Te Hurihanga was built and opened in 2007, wanted a similar if not the same type of treatment to continue regardless of who the funder was.

"We believe the pilot has been so successful with graduates not reoffending after a history of about 20 offences a year."

Archbishop Moxon said the church had not been consulted over ending the programme other than being alerted to the ministry's research into "other options" before last Monday's announcement.

The Government has said it will keep Te Hurihanga open but with a shorter-stay programme run by Child Youth and Family.

- © Fairfax NZ News