The circuit breaker is aimed at a “small group of 10-13-year olds” who are behind high rates of persistent offending.

The initiative involves:

• Fast-track intervention for 10-13 year olds involved in serious and persisting offending, initially in Counties Manukau and Waitakere
• Requirement of a plan to be in place of a plan for children who offend within 24-48 hours of offending
• Expanding Kotahi te Whakaaro, a successful turnaround programme for 14-17 year olds, and increased funding for community support programmes in four regions.

The initiative builds on the Government’s Better Pathways package, announced in September, which, it says, is already impacting offending. In August there were 75 ram raids; at 21 November this had dropped to 15.

Coincidentally(?), just prior to the Government’s announcement TV1’s John Campbell produced a longform exploration into the cause-and-effect environment that is fuelling children and young people who offend.

The two-part investigation offering a sobering look at the home lives of these children and young people, whom Campbell interviewed at Te Au Rere a te Tonga, an Oranga Tamariki ‘youth justice residence’ on the outskirts of Palmerston North.

You can read/watch Campbell’s investigation on 1News’ website here > 

Here are some of the quotes and excerpts that stood out to us.

“…Almost without exception the residents in youth residences come from ‘family harm’.

Eighty per cent of them spent at least some of their childhood in homes where police, Oranga Tamariki – or both – have been called by neighbours, teachers or extended whānau, concerned about violence…

It’s difficult for many of us to understand the extent to which violence has been part of their young lives and how much damage this has done…

Those of us who argue tough love is a solution to their criminality may be underestimating the extent to which they’ve had the ‘tough’ already. It’s the love they’ve been so desperately short of.”

John Campbell

“One thing is certain, unless the underlying causes of offending are effectively addressed offending will continue.”

“The children who, at age 10 or 11 we think of as  ‘vulnerable’ and in need of care and protection are very often the same children who, at age 14, we see before the Youth Court. They have the same underlying issues, but they move from being seen vulnerable to being seen as criminal.”

“If you bring a child up in a war zone, you end up with a warrior.”

From a speech given in 2017 by (then) principal youth court judge John Walker. 

“It’s a New Zealand issue…This is not an Oranga Tamariki issue, or a whānau issue, it’s an all of us together issue. These are just normal kids who’ve had tough lives. I’m not condoning their crimes, because there needs to be consequences for your actions, but there’s contributing factors for these kids, and there’s things that we can do to fix that. And that’s not in here. That needs to be in the community.”

Kyle Kuiti, residence manager at Te Au Rere a te Tonga