Youth Detention Review Launched

Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 2:52 pm
Article: Mark P. Williams

Today saw the launch of the 'Joint Thematic Review of Young Persons in Police Detention' by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), Office of the Children's Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission (HRC). The review calls for Police to improve both their treatment of young people in custody and their own training in dealing with situations where young people are detained.

The launch was headed by Judge Sir David Carruthers (centre), Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills (left) and Chief Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford (right). Judge Carruthers pointed out that this review is the first of its kind and is unique in being a joint venture between the three organisations.

Sir David Carruthers stated that the review work began in 2010 under three other chairs, and was undertaken as part of New Zealand's obligation to meet its responsibilities under international conventions on human rights. He added that part of the purpose of the review is to emphasise that holding young people in police detention is viewed as a last resort and they wished to ensure that it was only ever used as such. The review made a series of 24 recommendations which Sir David said fell into three categories: factors which result in detention; the treatment of young people whilst in detention; and the sharing of information, data collection and monitoring of issues to address what can be done in the future.

He said that detention is generally counter-productive to dealing with offending by young people because it is not designed for their needs and can make things worse. He went on to say that all three of them accepted an obligation to follow up the recommendations of the report and that he was personally very pleased with the quality of the report and its useful recommendations.

Dr Wills described the arrest of young offenders an opportunity to turn around young peoples' lives before they set course towards becoming life-long offenders. He said that when it came to young people, the purpose of arrest and detainment was to take preventative actions which would benefit not only the individual arrested, and their family and whanau but wider New Zealand society.

Dr Wills said that he wanted to make the point that this was an issue for everyone, the cost of imprisonment of adults was around $100,000 per year and New Zealand has a very high rate of imprisonment for its population, particularly for Maori. He said that early interventions and preventative measures focused on young offenders were one of the best opportunities available to reduce adult prisoner numbers and thereby reduce the burden on the taxpayer and the prison system as a whole.

Commissioner David Rutherford then spoke on the role of the Human Rights Commission in enforcing international covenants within New Zealand. He said he fully endorsed the report and was at pains to point out that New Zealand forces veterans had fought specifically to preserve human rights and that the detention of young people was an important issue which fell within the purview of preventing "cruel and unusual" treatment. He went on to say that he felt that the Police were "on the right track" and spoke of the need for good data to understand why people are being detained and charged.

All three then took questions from the press.

Questions

The three were asked why numbers of young people in police cells was declining between 2006-9 but then rose afterwards. Sir David said that there were a number of issues, ranging from availability of appropriate facilities for processing young people and variations in practice because of specific local issues.

Commissioner Rutherford was asked how, with the emphasis on prevention, do the Police strike the right balance between working with young people and managing cuts to their budget. David Rutherford said that this was probably a question for the Police Commissioner but spoke of a need for focused and targeted interventions and learning from the Police Districts which are doing well.

Commissioner Rutherford was asked how data collection was being used in respect to Maori offenders in particular. He responded that this was precisely the kind of area in which more data needed to be collected to determine why one group of New Zealanders was affected more than another and how that might be addressed. Dr Wills said that an important aspect of this was bringing together police, and Child and Youth services, wrapping vulnerable young people with appropriate support at as early an age as possible.

Dr Wills was asked what kind of correlations he had seen between early behavioural problems in children and longer term incidences of offending. He responded by saying that New Zealand has two of the best longitudinal studies on this link in the world, from Christchurch and Dunedin, which give very good evidence on the relationship between early childhood disturbance, as young as four, and offending and imprisonment later in life.

The press raised the issue of recent criticism of Police handling of the detention of young people. Dr Wills emphasised the importance of shared training between departments as a way of sharing skills and developing relationships which would facilitate and improve on existing treatment.

Commissioner Rutherford was asked how New Zealand stood internationally on human rights regarding the detention of children. He responded that New Zealand was better than a great many countries but behind some others with room for improvement. He admitted that youth detention was not an issue he had looked into a lot prior to taking up his present role.

The panel were asked whether there had been any consideration given to an extension of Marae based initiatives to help deal with youth offending. Sir David responded that there had been an extension to the Rangatahi Court model. Dr Wills then added that he would like to see much wider extension of co-ordinations between Iwi and Hapu and Child Youth and Family in respect to supported bail and specialist care-givers.

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