227. The Inquiry finds:

Circumstances that led to individuals being taken or placed into care

1. There was targeted over-surveillance and prosecution of Māori and Pacific children and young people by NZ Police and other authorities from the 1960s.

2. Most of the children and young people placed at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre from the mid-1960s were tamariki and rangatahi Māori. At times about 5 per cent were Pacific fanau. The decisions by judges and social workers to place them there were often strongly influenced by racial discrimination against Māori and Pacific Peoples in the justice, social welfare and education systems.

3. Many children and young people placed at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre had already been in multiple State or faith-based institutions, including other residences, foster care or psychiatric settings.

4. Decision makers wrongly believed that training and residential care run by the State provided a safe environment to control and correct behaviours of boys considered juvenile delinquents or social deviants.

5. Decision makers were also influenced by ableist and disablist attitudes of State authorities that devalued and dehumanised disabled children and young people and those with unrecognised neurodiversity.

6. Most children and young people were placed at Hokio School or Kohitere Centre as an outcome of youth justice charges.

7. Other children and young people were placed in the residences because they were in need of care and protection and had been removed from their whānau. Some had run away from other social welfare residential placements or foster care where they had been abused and neglected.

8. It was inappropriate to place children and young people who required care and protection at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre with those who were placed there as an outcome of youth justice charges.

9. The State failed to engage with and properly support hāpori and whānau Māori, and Pacific Peoples’ kainga (families), to care for their own.

Nature and extent of abuse and neglect

10. Hokio School and Kohitere Centre were among the most abusive of all social welfare residential boys’ homes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Each had cultures of normalised and pervasive violence.

11. Extreme physical abuse was routinely meted out by staff members to punish, contain and humiliate boys. Many survivors experienced severe corporal punishment from staff, sometimes inflicted with weapons and to the genitals.

12. Staff also punished boys with extreme physical training and inhumane tasks. They were often physically assaulted at the same time.

13. Survivors also experienced significant violence from other children. Younger or physically smaller boys, including the few Pākehā boys, were often a target for abuse from other children and young people.

14. Staff often condoned, encouraged or ignored peer-on-peer violence through a kingpin system, including violent ‘stomping’ initiations of new boys, who were then expected to do the same to others.

15. Sexual abuse was also pervasive. It was inflicted on survivors by staff members, occasional adult visitors, and other boys. One third of registered survivors from these institutions were groomed, sexually abused, or brutally raped by staff. Groups of older boys raped and sexually abused younger boys – one quarter of survivors described being sexually abused by their peers.

16. Solitary confinement or seclusion was misused. Some survivors were kept for days, weeks and sometimes months in prison-like solitary confinement or ‘secure’ as a punishment. Survivors were often physically and psychologically abused while in secure.

17. The facilities used for solitary confinement were understaffed and inadequate, and standards for the duration and reporting of secure introduced in the 1980s were continuously breached.

18. Survivors were also placed in secure for attempting to escape abuse and neglect at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre by running away. Most boys were returned, often by NZ Police, without enquiry as to the reasons for why the boys ran away and were further punished.

19. Senior staff at Kohitere raised concerns with the Department of Social Welfare’s head office that the conditions of secure were inadequate, but they were not remedied.

20. Racism and cultural abuse were normalised. Tamariki and rangatahi Māori were over-represented and were therefore more likely to be abused and to experience racial abuse and cultural neglect. Despite some positive experiences such as kapa haka and kaumatua visits, there was little meaningful cultural or te reo Māori education. This was a transgression against whakapapa.

21. Pacific children and young people were also over-represented and experienced racial abuse and cultural neglect.

22. Psychological and emotional abuse and neglect was also prevalent and often dehumanising.

23. Access to trained staff and psychological support was inconsistent and inadequate for children and young people with complex needs including trauma, grief, suicide attempts and learning difficulties. Senior staff regularly raised concerns about the need for further psychological and psychiatric services for boys, but those concerns were not met.

24. Most children and young people experienced educational neglect and were unable to adequately access or continue their primary and secondary education.

25. The trades training provided as an alternative form of education at Kohitere Centre was often physically demanding but for some children was a positive aspect of their time there. For others, it was dangerous, exploitative, and abusive. Boys were often exposed to unsafe working conditions, were injured in work accidents and from on-site punishments.

Impacts of abuse and neglect

26. The abuse and neglect at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre harmed survivors’ physical and mental health, their psychological, emotional, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, and their educational and economic prospects.

27. Many survivors suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, depression and suicidal ideation. Some have died by suicide.

28. Many survivors had issues with drug and alcohol use and addiction later in life, and many committed offences connected to their addictions and trauma.

29. More than half of the survivors from these institutions who spoke to the Inquiry have been in prison at some point in their lives. Some survivors intentionally committed offences sufficiently serious to ensure they would be discharged as a ward of the State, with borstal or prison seen as preferable to care.

30. Hokio School and Kohitere Centre were places where gangs were formed. The State placed children and young people who were already vulnerable in these places, allowed abuse and neglect to occur, and provided no assistance to survivors to work through the impacts of abuse, neglect and trauma. Instead, many survivors found protection, connection, support and understanding by joining gangs.

31. Many survivors described difficulty with intimate relationships. Some survivors were violent to their partners. Some survivors were, or continue to be, estranged from their children.

32. Many survivors did not receive adequate or any education and had reduced employment and career opportunities as adults.

33. Māori survivors experienced a lack of access to their culture and identity. This diminished their mana and was a transgression against their whakapapa. Although there was some attempt at providing cultural education, such as kapa haka, survivors were still punished for speaking te reo Māori and lost this ability due to cultural neglect by the institutions.

34. Some Pacific Peoples survivors also lost their identity and the ability to speak their languages due to disconnection from their family and their cultures.

35. The harm to survivors has been transferred over generations.

Factors that caused or contributed to abuse and neglect

36. The following personal factors caused or contributed to abuse and neglect at Hokio School and the Kohitere Centre:

a. Abuse was carried out by staff and peers of the children and young people that were placed in the two institutions.
b. Abuse was carried out by some peers of the children and young people that were placed in the two institutions.
c. Staff who were abusers used their unlimited access and positions of power and control to abuse and neglect children and young people in their care.
d. Many staff and other bystanders who suspected, knew of, or witnessed abuse and neglect failed to intervene to stop it, and some discouraged children and young people from complaining. Only a few staff tried to help the boys in their care.

37. The following institutional factors caused or contributed to abuse and neglect at Hokio School and the Kohitere Centre:

a. Hierarchical cultures existed at both institutions driven by managers with an ethos of conformity, discipline and harsh punishments in which physical abuse and neglect were tolerated and condoned.
b. A strong ‘no-narking’ culture existed among both staff and children and young people. Children and young people were threatened and beaten by other boys, and sometimes staff, if they attempted to complain about the abuse and neglect.
c. Staff recruited to Hokio School and Kohitere Centre often lacked relevant qualifications and expertise. Few were properly trained for their positions of trust. Prior to the 1970s, they were not subject to NZ Police vetting.
d. Managers at both institutions did not comply with State policies and limits on corporal punishment were generally not complied with.
e. The State failed to ensure adequate safeguarding policies and regulations were in place at both institutions. Staff left children and young people unsupervised and permitted them to go to the homes of staff and other adults, increasing the risk of abuse and neglect.
f. A lack of safeguarding and poor supervision were compounded by overcrowding and an unbalanced staff-to-child ratio. For much of their existence, the institutions were at or over capacity.
g. Social worker and family visits were infrequent or not at all. This was a further barrier to children and young people making complaints.
h. There was no adequate complaints process for survivors or staff at either institution. Some staff members lost their jobs after coming forward with allegations or concerns about the behaviour of other employees.
i. When complaints were made, staff at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre often failed to properly investigate and respond to allegations of serious abuse or to inform the Department of Social Welfare of the complaints.
j. When staff members were convicted of abuse, Hokio School and Kohitere Centre failed to investigate further, to see if other children and young people had been abused.

38. The following structural, systemic, and practical factors caused or contributed to abuse and neglect at Hokio School and the Kohitere Centre:

a. The physical locations of the institutions and the visiting practices isolated survivors from their whānau, communities and society.
b. State and institutional policies and practices prioritised the needs of the institutions over the individual needs of vulnerable children and young people in their care and requiring protection.
c. The Department of Social Welfare and its successors did not comply with practice standards, including safeguarding measures such as social worker visits, which left children and young people unsupervised and without safe and effective complaints procedures.
d. The Department of Social Welfare and its successors failed to hold itself, the institutions and abusers to account for the systemic abuse of children and young people.
e. The response of the Department of Social Welfare to complaints of abuse in some instances was to move an alleged or confirmed abuser to another social welfare setting or ask the person to resign, but not report the abuse to NZ Police. Some staff members lost their jobs after making complaints or raising concerns.
f. The Department of Social Welfare and its successors failed to adequately monitor the two institutions and ensure the children and young people entrusted into State care were safe and looked after. These failures allowed abuse and neglect to continue unchallenged at Hokio School and Kohitere Centre.

39. The following societal factors caused or contributed to abuse and neglect at Hokio School and the Kohitere Centre:

a. Negative social attitudes towards ‘delinquent’ children and young people and those living in poverty were pervasive among those making decisions to place children at the institutions, and among staff at both institutions. Staff considered that boys required discipline and believed boys were prone to making false complaints.
b. Racist societal attitudes were reflected in the institutions, including an ignorance of te Tiriti and the principle of active protection of Māori language and culture. Te reo Māori was suppressed and discouraged and efforts to include Māori culture could be tokenistic.