Teen in tiny police cell for 12 days

An acute shortage of youth justice beds has led to a 16-year-old Porirua youth offender being held in a police cell for 12 consecutive nights.

His barrister, Alisdair Ross, believed the teenager's wait for a bed at a youth justice residence was the longest in New Zealand.

Child, Youth and Family conceded that while it was "not ideal", there was no quick fix for the growing demand for youth justice beds.

Figures from the department last year showed that between January and September, young people under 17 spent time in police cells for up to 12 nights.

The youth faces serious criminal charges related to an incident late last month, though details of the offences and his name are suppressed.

He has appeared in the Youth Court daily, each time being remanded into custody with no other place available for him.

"There are 13 people waiting for beds at present and this young person has been on the waiting the longest," Mr Ross said.

He described the youth's living conditions as completely unsuitable.

"It's a 2 by 2 metre cell with an uncomfortable bed, inadequate washing facilities and no exercise yard."

In a closed session of Porirua District Court yesterday, Judge Chris Tuohy remanded the teenager in custody for another night.

"There are no residential beds available for you and the Youth Court judge decided it was a clear case where bail should not be granted," he said.

CYF residential services manager Ken Rand said three of the youths in police cells were moved to youth residences yesterday.

Placements were prioritised on the basis of risk and nature of the alleged offence, while their age and sex was also considered, he said.

CYF would not talk about specific cases.

Mr Ross said there appeared to be no end in sight to the youth's situation.

CYF Minister Ruth Dyson said she was "unhappy" that any young person was held in cells for anything longer than overnight.

The challenge was to find a balance between the laws governing young people's rights and community safety and providing the right number of beds, she said.

There were 90 beds at youth justice residences in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch. That would increase to 102 in September when CYF opened a 32-bed facility in Christchurch.

A further 24 beds would be available by 2008 when a central Youth Justice building was due to be opened.

Mr Rand said youths held in police cells were contacted regularly by a social worker.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old girl spent four nights in a Dunedin police cell even though CYF had empty beds at the city's youth secure unit.

Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said the girl was caught up in what was "effectively a national crisis" in residential care and urged CYF to re-evaluate its placement policies.

The girl was eventually accepted into the Puketai Care and Protection Residence in Dunedin late yesterday, but not before Judge O'Driscoll asked to meet senior CYF managers to see why it was so difficult to remand cases to care and protection homes that had the capacity to take them.

"It does not make any sense to have three beds available at Puketai but because of a [department] policy, we have to send a young person away," he said, remanding her back to police care until a CYF bed was made available.

CYF effectively closed Puketai's three secure cells to young offenders when it decided in 2003 to enforce a national policy to keep care and protection campuses and youth offenders apart.

- NZPA