CYF scouts sites for teen 'prison'

Rural sites in Waikato or around Rotorua are being considered for a new secure youth justice facility.

Child, Youth and Family has announced that the Rotorua district is one of the areas it is considering for a possible site and local lawyers say it can't come fast enough.

A working party set up by the agency has met for the first time to consider possible areas in which to build Youth Justice Central - a 24-bed secure youth justice facility.

The group, which is chaired by former South Waikato Mayor Gordon Blake, is calling for interested parties with 7-10ha of available land.

Rural land in either Rotorua, South Waikato, Matamata-Piako or the outskirts of Hamilton will be considered.

Youth Justice Central will be a secure youth facility for up to 24 young people aged between 14 and 16 who are subject to supervision with residence orders or who have been remanded in custody by the Youth Court.

The facility will be the fourth of its kind and is expected to be built by mid to late 2008.

It will cost $30 million to build and $9 million a year to run and will employ up to 60 people including social workers, teachers, health workers, administrators and caterers.

It is expected the facility will eventually accommodate 40.

Child, Youth and Family residences manager Ken Rand said youth offenders were being sent out of the district, away from their families, and many were held in police cells with adult offenders.

Rotorua lawyer Harry Edward said the region desperately needed such a facility.

Waiting lists for beds in existing residences were increasing and some of those appearing in the Rotorua Youth Court had to spend up to a week in police cells while they waited for a bed.

"It is an unsatisfactory state of affairs," Mr Edward said.

Judges normally directed young offenders be kept apart from adults in police cells but that put extra strain on police, Mr Edward said.

The sooner a facility was built in the region the better.

Another Rotorua lawyer, Simon Lance, said an extra facility was necessary and he favoured a site in the Central North Island region.

He had represented young people who had spent up to five days in police cells because there was nowhere else to send them, he said.

Child, Youth and Family senior communications adviser Rhiannon Symmons said the facility would not be built in an urban area.

Site criteria would include proximity to transport, staffing and access to airports and emergency services.

The working party will look for potential sites over the coming months.

- NZPA