Launch of “Getting Back on Track” Kit

Monday 12 July 2004

Good afternoon. Punishment ideas for criminals has been getting a bit of a public airing lately. Prevention ideas do not seem to have been quite so popular. Which is a great shame, particularly from people who take great pride in their ability to manage money matters.

As a lapsed accountant I have never forgotten the hard math behind early intervention ideas. The best case estimate of the savings you make from every dollar spent early in the piece is that you save $35 dollars further down the track. Spend $1, save $35. That's the rule of thumb that meant many years ago I jumped in to make sure our Project Early stayed alive and viable.

Now, like many of our good Christchurch ideas, it has been picked up and put into action elsewhere.

Stopping crime is one of those crucial areas where we all need to be willing to move past party lines and fixed prejudices. It is quite valid at a time of record low employment to note that crime has not dropped to the same low levels.

I also don't think you have to be a total right winger to wonder if the present policy of always pushing to leave kids in troubled families if at all possible, is the right way to go. Personally I don't think so.

I also don't like the idea that there is a quick fix for all this. Politicians generally like to be popular. If there was that magic quick fix for crime, I'm sure someone would have wheeled it out by now. And, boy, would they be popular.

I do know what works and that is early intervention. It can help turn lives around. It also saves the community huge costs, financially and emotionally.

The Getting Back on Track resource kit will help people find the ways to start turning around young lives. It is planned as a definitive directory for people working with young people at risk of moving into offending behaviour. It should prove to be a valuable tool in prevention.

I think that is it is worth pointing out again that early intervention is not the soft option. The soft option is doing nothing. There is a huge body of evidence coming in from our own work in New Zealand and overseas that you can break the cycle of crime if you get in early enough.

The key to success with this approach is in knowing what signs to look for and what to do when you find them. This resource should prove a great help in helping you in making that diagnosis.