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“Maybe this is the wrong tree... let’s try barking up that one”

“Maybe this is the wrong tree... let’s try barking up that one”. Neurodisabilities : Key messages from the Youth Court. Neurodevelopmental disorders have been largely invisible in the Youth Court for the last 25 years

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“Maybe this is the wrong tree... let’s try barking up that one”

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  1. “Maybe this is the wrong tree... let’s try barking up that one”

  2. Neurodisabilities: Key messages from the Youth Court • Neurodevelopmental disorders have been largely invisible in the Youth Court for the last 25 years • We are now beginning to understand their prevalence and their implications for the youth justice sector • New Zealand has taken on the international research – especially that emerging from the UK • NZ’s youth justice system is now said (by the UK researchers) to be world leading in a pioneering response to the neurodisability issue

  3. March 2008 How big is the problem? From “Nobody Made the Connection: The prevalence of neurodisability in young people who offend”, Nathan Hughes et al, October 2012

  4. Key elements of New Zealand’s youth justice system Age of criminal liability is 10. (UNCROC recommends no lower than 12) The only offences 10 – 11 year olds can be charged with are murder and manslaughter. (These charges must be dealt with by the High Court) Youth Court jurisdiction begins at age 12 and concludes on the 17th birthday. (UNCROC defines children as including 17 year olds) 12 – 13 year olds can only be charged with very serious offences. (36 in 2014: 28 in 2015) Otherwise 12-13 year old offenders are dealt with in Family Court on the basis that care & protection issues will be the root cause of their offending. 14 – 16 year olds can be charged in the Youth Court with all offences - except non-imprisonable traffic offences.

  5. Key elements of New Zealand’s youth justice system • About 80% of all youth offending is dealt with using alternative approaches, by the Police and the community, without charge. • NZ youth offending “diversion rates” are higher than any other country in the world! • Only a small group, last year 1,801 young people, are charged in the Youth Court.

  6. Rate per 10,000 population of 14-16 year olds, appearing in the NZ Youth Court

  7. Key elements of New Zealand’s youth justice system • 7. If charges in the Youth Court are “not denied” then a Family Group Conference (FGC) must be held, where victims can attend, young people can be held to account, and an agreed plan is formulated to stop them reoffending. • If the FGC plan is completed, an absolute discharge may be granted. No record. • If the FGC plan cannot be agreed upon, is not completed, or if the matter is simply too serious for an informal FGC plan (about 25% of cases) then a formal Youth Court order is made. • Formal Youth Court orders can include: Community work, supervision, community based activity programmes, youth justice prison sentences and, in rare cases (15 last year), conviction and transfer to the Adult Court for an adult prison sentence.

  8. Some of our NZ Youth Justice Responses • Youth Court: “Half the numbers – twice the complexity” • Ministry of Health expanding Regional Youth Forensic Services (RYFS), which is now in every Youth Court in the country • The recently opened national Inpatient Unit in Porirua for those requiring custodial care from the Youth Court • The growing presence of Education Officers in the Youth Court • The rapidly expanding use of specialist reports under s 333 of the CYPF Act 1989 – e.g. psychological, medical

  9. Some of our responses • Increasing awareness of “fitness to stand trial” issues: up to 30% of cases in Manukau • Development of a response to almost all areas of a response to neurodisability – e.g. “Talking Trouble” and the communication assistance protocol • Awareness of the growing disproportionality of Māori within the Youth Court, and of the challenge in dealing with young Māori with neurdisabilities • Question: How do we engage with whānau, hapū and iwi on this issue?

  10. Advantages of the NZ Youth Justice System Approach • A real awareness of and focus on neurodisability • High levels of non-charging interventions with good community-based programmes – taking neurodisability into account • Only the most serious offenders or offences come to the Youth Court, where there is a multidisciplinary approach with Health, Education, CYF and Police working collaboratively • FGC plans can be tailored to the young person’s particular needs • In the Youth Court effective accountability and a completed response can result in a clean record

  11. Where to now? The cognitively challenged are before our courts in unknown numbers. We prosecute them again and again and again. We sentence them again and again and again. We imprison them again and again and again. They commit crimes again and again and again. We wonder why they do not change. The wonder of it all is that we do not change our expectations rather than trying to change them. - Judge CarlieTrueman, Provincial Court of British Columbia 2002

  12. Where to now? Is a criminal justice system that commits young people with neurodisability to custody a fair system if those young people do not understand the consequences of their actions...and their disability & needs are not identified, recognised and responded to, such that interventions and sentences serve to criminalise rather than to offer support? - Question raised in Nobody Made the Connection, 2012

  13. Passionate about Youth Justice!

  14. I hope I am clear in what I am saying

  15. Interruptions welcome!

  16. Maturing of the Brain (as seen in MRI Studies) • Cortical regions, which deal with: • Judgement • Responsibility • Wisdom • ..do not fully mature until the second or third decade NB: blue matter resembles maturation of cortical areas

  17. 3. What do the statistics tells us?

  18. The pivotal importance of focusing on youth crime

  19. Apprehensions for Offences by 10-16 Year Olds – National Rates (Source: NZ Police)

  20. Young People Appearing in the Youth Court – Nationally

  21. Assumptions • Assumption In fact… • Behaviour • Repeated mistakes • Inappropriate social conduct • Non compliant • Late • Bad Can’t linkcause and effect • On purposeCan’t generalise from one situation toanother • Recidivist Learning disabilitycriminal • Deviant/violentCan’t interpret social cuesor regulateemotions • Attention seeking Doesn’t know what to do • Stubborn/defiantCan’t translate instructions (written or verbal) Doesn’t understand Has memory problems • Lazy, slow, Can’t understand abstract bad attitude concept of time Needs help getting organised

  22. Why the top 10%? Source: New Zealand Police

  23. A different perspective…..

  24. The real & most effective solution

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