Kerre Woodham: Government gang rehab programmes need to show us their value

The Greens are under fire with Marama Davidson doubling down on her desire to work with the mob to get positive health outcomes. First there was the photo in the mob headquarters, cha ching, look at us, woo hoo! That was the Greens and Te Pāti Māori MPs popping along to a health hui.

And when asked about that in faintly judgy tones by the media, Greens co leader Marama Davidson said, "We are open to funding the Mongrel Mob to deliver drug prevention programs. We're open to funding what works. We're an evidence-based party." And that instead of pushing problems under the carpet, they want to bring problems out into the light, get to the people who are hard to reach, and if that means working with the mob, well, all well and good.

They have got the receipts already, we will support more of that work. But have they? The thing with receiving government money for pet projects and worthy community initiatives is that you have to show you get results, measured in hard data, before you can get any more dosh. And when it comes to drug rehabilitation and trying to rehabilitate people who are not part of the mainstream, sure, try something different.

But Labour has tried. Under Jacinda Ardern, they funded the Harry Tam marae-based rehab program for gang members. Harry Tam's a lifelong Mongrel Mob member. The money didn't come from the taxpayer's pocket per se, it came from the Proceeds of Crime Fund, which seemed perverse to critics but logical to supporters: use gang money to rehabilitate gang members.

But the whole thing boils down to whether or not it worked. And the answer is: who would know? There were 80 participants across nine intakes who went through an eight-week live-in program at Waipawa, followed by two weeks of reintegration and then wrap around support services for six weeks. All of the intakes were drug tested at the beginning, almost all of them testing positive for meth. The program was addiction treatment, then cultural immersion to build self-worth, physical activity programs, and help towards the end of the program with welfare applications, writing CVs and applying for driver's licenses or training courses to make you more employable.

All very well and good and marvellous, but did it work? Did the graduates kick the meth? Again, who would know? To quote from Derek Cheng's story in the Herald, "an exact figure is not possible from the reports, as only some of them include data for the post program checks, while others have the data reda