A recent investigation by the legacy media outlet the NZ Herald has uncovered concerning trends within community remand homes for young offenders.
According to documents obtained from Oranga Tamariki, nearly 40% of young offenders placed in these facilities from August 2020 to February 2023 escaped lawful custody, with even higher rates recorded in Auckland at 49%.
In a memo from youth justice managers to Oranga Tamariki’s deputy chief executive service delivery, Rachel Leota, the scale of the issue was starkly outlined, prompting calls for a review of these community homes.
The homes, intended as alternatives to secure youth justice facilities, aim to provide a more ‘supportive environment’ for young offenders, allowing them to maintain connections with their families and communities. However, their effectiveness is being undermined by the high rates of absconding, as offenders can just walk out of the facilities.
While these homes are not prisons, staff face significant challenges in preventing young offenders from leaving. Despite efforts such as regular checks and alarms, escapes remain a persistent issue.
A lack of clear standard operating procedures across different homes further compounds the problem, as highlighted in a review by change and culture consultant Debbie Francis and former police Inspector Paul Vlaanderen. The authors noted inconsistencies in practices and approaches, indicating a need for more evidence-based strategies.
The consequences of these escapes extend beyond the immediate safety concerns, with concerns raised about the potential for reoffending among those who abscond. However, limited data makes it difficult to assess the full extent of this issue.
Of course they’re going to escape- soooo many jewellry stores to rob and soooo little time..!
Almost as if secure facilities are superior to “supportive homes” or something 🤔
Almost as if endless compassion and excuse-making (and tax money) AREN’T effective deterrents to criminal behaviour 🤔
Almost as if the absence of discipline, punishment and consequence will only keep these kids headed down the wrong path in life 🤔
Weird.
Community remand homes sound like borstals without the bars and barbed wire. Borstals, like prisons, never worked either – not since Victorian times, – yet still discipline and punishment are looked at as the two necessary correctives for children who have been on the streets since they were 6 or 7 – simply because they were safer there. Consequences don’t bother them either. These kids have been around the block more times than the local postman. They don’t believe in anything any more. Physical punishment doesn’t frighten them – they are used to that. Locking them up is a bad, bad idea and usually leads to reprehensible adult behaviour. I personally think that turning badly behaved children and adolescents around and giving them respect and a safe place to go is beyond the capabilities of society in time and money but there you go. Let a problem fester for years, it will take the same number of years to cure it. It would pay to identify the problem at source and deal with it there.
Father Felix Donnelly had some success. Check his methods. Ask Colin Duff, he wrote books about the problem – was one himself.
Locking them up may lead to reprehensible adult behaviour one day, but so will forever letting them get away with everything.
You can’t fight violence and criminal thuggery with love and cuddles, you just can’t. We’ve tried this softy soft on crime nonsense for like 3 or 4 decades now and everything is only getting worse.
Sorry for those kids, sorry that they were dealt a shitty hand in life, but at what point are we going to start protecting the kids who DO work hard, who DO follow the rules, who invariably end up being their victims?
Because those are the ACTUAL victims, and they’re piling up while our society is stuck dicking around with pop psychology instead of restoring law and order.
Weren’t they going to be sent to boot camp or something? I thought something might come of that. Removing them from their environment and putting them through army discipline for a year seemed a good option. But they can’t be kept confined to barracks forever and when released I suppose most of them will just return to their previous lifestyles – in better health, with improved skills, and with contacts they didn’t have before.
I have thought about this a lot, and generally end up thinking it will have to be remand for under 16s then imprisonment if older because there just doesn’t seem to be any other way for society to protect itself. They just have to be sequestered so people can live safely.
I do think the law should go for the parents of the under 16s though and jail them no excuses. Pronto and tout de suite. Call it sending them to live in a gated community so the UN doesn’t get upset.