Principal Youth Court Judge of New Zealand, Hon John Walker, addressed the Club on 10 October. He was appointed to the District Court bench in 1994. Since then he has been involved in a number of roles relating to judicial administration and courts reform, particularly related to drug and alcohol dependent young persons and adult offenders.
The statistics of the Youth Court are disturbing and many of us in the room were unaware of the reality. Police attend 160,000 callouts to family violence a year in New Zealand and, in 80% of these events, children are involved. But it is estimated that only 20% of family violence is reported. A staggering 60% of all those who appear in the Youth Court have a history of family violence. In the District Court, 50% of all defendants have a history of trauma.
Underlying this violence is a high level of neuro-disability caused by alcohol, brain injuries or drugs. This leads to early onset of mental illness such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, drug addiction and dyslexia, which are all contributing factors for offending behaviour.
Of the young people arrested by Police, 70% don’t end up in the Youth Court. In one week typically 850 young people throughout New Zealand are involved with the Court but only 120 are subjected to lockup. Fortunately, this is on a downward trajectory except for the ram-raids which have caused a recent uptick.
The difficult question is ‘why’? One reason is addiction to drugs in families with little income. Many of the young people are illiterate; unable to read or write. It was clear that their assistance service needed to be better delivered. A cross-agency approach has been developed, with a new vision for the District Court. Victims should be seen and understood.
The Court is being encourage to ‘talk normal’ and reduce the legal jargon. A Young Adults Court in Porirua is an example of this more enlightened approach, called Marama, which is aimed at reducing re-offending. This community justice-centred model helps to mainstream solution-focussed court practice. Rotary is helping with its ‘Lifting the Lid’ programme in which counselling hours are paid for.
The Club is grateful to Judge Walker for this compelling talk.
John Boshier
