KEY POINTS:
Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft says an "abysmally drafted" bill before Parliament would effectively abolish the court and end family group conferences.
New Zealand First MP Ron Mark's Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill, which would lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 (which he has agreed
to amend to 12) passed its first reading with Labour's support, under his party's election deal with Labour.
Judge Becroft said if MPs wanted to improve the system they should better resource police youth workers, improve training and keep children in school.
Mr Mark's bill was not the answer, he said.
"It would effectively end our current youth justice system ... whatever have been the intentions it is clear that this bill is profoundly poorly drafted," he told the law and order select committee yesterday.
"One could even say it is abysmally drafted and I would have to say I am concerned that such an important issue - that is youth justice and youth offending - has had to address such a poorly piece of legislation."
Judge Becroft said under the bill only 18 charges - for offences such as stone throwing that seldom ended up in court anyway - would remain in the Youth Court jurisdiction.
All other charges would have to go to adult court and there would be no discretion.
"It [the Youth Court] would be gutted effectively of its jurisdiction."
The bill would mean all cases would go to court and imprisonment would be an option for almost all charges.
He said under the current law children could already be tried in adult courts - 10 to 13-year-olds were dealt with in Family Court and those aged 14-16 in Youth Court but serious charges - including sexual attacks and violence - went to district or high courts.
The Youth Court could use its discretion to hear cases, except murder or manslaughter, but even then could send a youth back to an adult court for sentencing.
"There is a means now to convict and transfer all young offenders to the district court now for sentence," he said.
"It may be that the bill itself and the framers of the bill fail to understand that point."
About 60 youths, usually males, were jailed each year - a figure that had been stable for about a decade.
Judge Becroft said the emphasis was to divert youth out of court systems and about 80 per cent of cases were dealt with in the community.
"That is a world-leading figure ... we know from the research that most of that 80 per cent diverted away from the system don't reoffend."
He gave the committee statistics that showed youth offending rates were fairly steady from year to year. For 10 to 13-year-olds the rates of offending were reducing or stable.
"Where is the statistical evidence to suggest offending by 10 to 13-year-olds is spiralling out of control?"
Violent crime had increased, but that was across all age groups.
Judge Becroft said there was a large group of youth who stopped once they were caught and a small group of up to 3000 persistent offenders, usually boys, who were "unexploded human time bombs" likely to become adult offenders.
Early intervention was the best answer but no one internationally had done any better than New Zealand in reducing reoffending - 55 per cent who faced family group conferences either did not re-offend or did at a significantly reduced level.
When Mr Mark hit back at the criticisms saying the judge had focused on offenders not victims, the judge said victims' rights were paramount.
Mr Mark said violent crime was escalating and he did not accept the youth justice system was perfect.
Judge Becroft said there was room for improvement, but the bill was not the answer.
He hoped the debate would result in better resourcing and standards in the system.
A lack of data because of different methods in Child, Youth and Family and police meant a young person could not be tracked across the system and it "defied belief" there was no unified data set.
Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro shared Judge Becroft's concerns and said imprisoning children would not help rehabilitation and breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- NZPA
