Youth advocates, lawyers, Oranga Tamariki, police and judges must work together as a cohesive unit if troubled youngsters are to be kept out of the court system.
That was the key takeaway from The Law Association’s 2024 Youth Advocates Conference, which brought together New Zealand’s leading youth justice practitioners to share ideas about improving outcomes for young offenders.
When dealing with a young person, conference attendees were told, all parties need to have intimate knowledge of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 so they can integrate the care and protection provisions and the youth justice provisions with the legislation – or what’s known as the “crossover”.
Auckland Family Court Judge Tony FitzGerald said the Act was an integrated statute with child wellbeing as its overarching purpose. But often this integration was not applied in practice.
“The deeply embedded practice of keeping the care and protection and the youth justice aspects of the Act completely separate is, I believe, contrary to the law and produces outcomes for many of the children and young people concerned that are often in breach of the very purposes and principles of the Act,” he said.
Judge FitzGerald provided statistics showing that 93% of the children and young people referred to a youth justice family group conference also had some form of care and protection status. These are known as “crossover kids”.
However, because the two arms are being treated separately by the parties processing these children, crucial details about their personal lives and experiences are not being considered, which impacted their wellbeing.
“We have a system, contrary to the scheme of the Act, where when a young person enters the youth court, care and protection step away,” Judge Fitzgerald said.
“That’s not what the Act says, but that’s what the practice is.
“And because care and protection step away, who do you think is out there looking for a place for these crossover kids? It’s left to the Youth Court, not just to deal with their charges, but [also to] deal with every aspect of their life, including where they live.
“So, my plea is for everybody to get invested, to play their part in making this work for the children and young people.”
Changing lanes
Another crucial point discussed at the conference was the need for youth advocates, police and other practitioners to go beyond the normal scope of their roles to bridge the gaps between the different parties when caring for youth.
During one of the panel discussions, Catherine Cull KC said she makes a point of stepping outside her “lane” to coordinate the different parties operating under the Act in order to protect the wellbeing of the young people she represents.
Cull referenced one case as an example of how she, a judge, a police officer and a social service provider were able to rally around a young offender and prevent him from languishing in a care facility far from his home, where he was likely to continue offending.
“He is now connected with his whakapapa… We now have a 14-year-old who is on, fingers crossed, the right path.”
Numbers down
Andrew Telea, acting sergeant youth and community in the mid far North, was the police officer involved in that case. He said he has had to expand his role and become familiar with the Oranga Tamariki Act in order to reduce Youth Court appearances in Kaitaia.
When he started his role as a youth aid officer, Telea drove around the district, knocking on doors and introducing himself to families. “I asked them, ‘can we work together?’ Most of them said ‘yes’.
“I’m not afraid to change lanes and change my view just because I’ve been given that scope by my previous supervisor.”
Telea said some of the biggest challenges he faces when dealing with youth come from within the police itself.
“The biggest barrier to my mahi is my own organisation.
“We get hung up on s 214 [Arrest of child or young person without warrant] because we want to lock the little shits up. They love to chase them, lock them up and pat themselves on the back and then expect me to do Crime’s Act mentality on them.”
“They’re good people in their own right. They believe in what they do in terms of policing.
“They believe it’s their job to lock up everyone and charge the hell out of them. But my journey into Te Ao Marama is trying to change the outlook and the views of my own colleagues.”
Since he started applying alternative-action policies in Kaitaia, Youth Court numbers have dropped from 30 cases a month to single digits in recent years.
Whangarei District Court Judge Greg Davis said keeping young people out of court was the whole point of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
Courts should be a last resort, and even more serious offences should be viewed through an alternative-action lens.
“We’re talking about alternate action – aggravated robberies being dealt with out of court. There’s nothing in the Act that says graffiti can stay out of court, but aggravated robberies can’t.”
Judge Davis said the challenge to youth advocates and those engaged in the justice system was to ask how they could ensure matters didn’t get into court while the underlying issues that drove the offending were still being resolved.
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