Youth Justice – how we're doing

These tables show the trends in our youth justice data over the past two years.

Support following offending

The proportion of young people who have only had one Youth Justice referral has been increasing over the past two years (as shown in the blue bars). Of young people with a past Youth Justice referral, 77% had no contact with us this quarter.

Graph text description – re-engagement for those with youth justice history

This chart shows the number of rangatahi who have not had any engagement with Youth Justice in the quarter as a proportion of the total rangatahi we have previously engaged with who are still eligible for Youth Justice.

Of all applicable aged rangatahi in the latest quarter:

952 rangatahi who had only one previous family group conference did not have any engagement with Youth Justice in the quarter
575 rangatahi who had multiple previous family group conferences did not have any engagement with Youth Justice in the quarter

Re-offending

The number of young people involved in FGCs this quarter decreased by 20% in comparison to the December 21 quarter. Young people who have had between one and four FGCs remain the majority (75% this quarter - around average for the last two years). The number of rangatahi who have had 10 or more FGCs remains small and is decreasing over time.

Graph text description – FGC history for young people with current FGC

This chart shows the number of rangatahi who have had a family group conference in the quarter, split by the total number of family group conferences they have had in their lifetime, over the past two years.

Of all rangatahi who had a family group conference in the latest quarter:

211 have had one family group conference
169 have had two to four family group conferences
90 have had five to nine family group conferences
40 have had ten or more family group conferences

What is a family group conference (FGC)?

A youth justice family group conference gives a young person, along with their whānau, victims and professionals, a chance to help find solutions when they have offended.

There are three types of youth justice family group conference: an FGC for children who offend, an Intention to Charge FGC, and a Court Ordered FGC.

Less restrictive placements

The total number of custodial placements has remained stable over the past two quarters.

Community-Based placements continue to increase and now make up 34% of all custodial placements (compared to 22% in the March 21 quarter).

Note: the Police Custody figure does not align with other data sources due to differences in collection and reporting practices.

Graph text description – custodial placements in youth justice

This chart shows the number of remand placements over the quarter by type of placement. This is shown by quarter for the last two years.

In the latest quarter:

117 rangatahi had a community based placement
209 rangatahi had a residence placement
17 rangatahi were in Police Custody at some point

What are the different types of placements?

There are several different types of youth justice placements. These can include:

Residence: A youth justice residence provides a safe and secure place for young people to stay who are in the custody of the Chief Executive following arrest, remand or sentence. Residences are locked facilities that provide 24-hour containment and care.

Community-based placement: A young person in the custody of the Chief Executive can be placed in the community if their circumstances do not require them to be in a secure residence. Community-based placements can include group remand homes, supervised group homes and family homes among others.

Police custody: A young person can be held securely by the Police immediately following arrest or on custodial remand while a court case is progressing. This can include those in custody of the Police or in the custody of the Chief Executive.

Shorter placements

Practitioners ensure rangatahi are in custodial placements for the shortest time practical. Decreases in these figures indicate a positive shift. Supervision with residence placements increased to 108 days (from 103 in the December 21 quarter). The slight increase is not an immediate cause for concern as the current average of 108 days is only slightly over the minimum three month term of these orders. The number of average days spent in Residence on Remand and in Police Custody also increased slightly. Community-Based placements decreased from 15 to 12 days.

Graph text description – average days on custodial remand

This chart shows the average length in days of each of the remand placement types, by quarter, for the past two years.

In the latest quarter:

The average length of time spent in Police Custody was 1.1 days
The average length of a Supervision With Residence placement was 107.7 days
The average length of a Residence on Remand placement was 49.1 days
The average length of a Community-based placement was 11.9 days

What are the different types of custodial placements?

There are several different types of custodial placements. These include:

Supervision with Residence Orders (SWR): When a serious charge against a young person is proved before the Youth Court. The court can then order the young person to live in a youth justice residence under the custody of the Chief Executive. Supervision with residence placements are strongly influenced by the sentence length given by the court.

Custodial remand: When a young person is detained in the custody of the Chief Executive in a residence while a court case is progressing. The definition here also includes detention in the Chief Executive’s custody following arrest up to the first court appearance.

Initial case decision

Status of cases after first court appearance

The majority of young people are released on bail or at large after their first court appearance. In 68% of cases, young people were released on bail straight away. In 14% of cases, young people were placed on custodial remand and remained in custody throughout the case. In 15% of cases young people were placed on custodial remand and then granted bail.

Note: custodial remand figures can be overestimated in the current quarter.

Graph text description – status of cases after first court appearance

This chart shows the number of cases finalised in the quarter by the status of their release after the first court appearance. This is shown by quarter for the past two years.

In the latest quarter after the first appearance before a judge for each case:

45 rangatahi were released on custodial remand
47 rangatahi were released on custodial remand then later went onto bail
215 rangatahi were released on bail
9 rangatahi were released into the community

Escalation of bail

The purpose of this graph is to show the eventual outcomes for rangatahi who have been bailed by the Youth Court. This shows the court outcome immediately following a bail order, and whether further offending contributed to a young person remaining on bail
or being moved to custodial remand. The majority (71%) of all young people released on bail stay on bail and do not move to custodial remand (blue bars). This has consistently been the case in the last two years.

Graph text description – final status of first bail

This chart shows the success on bail for each case which had bail in the quarter, for the past two years.

Of the cases that had some bail during the quarter:

139 did not offend and stayed on bail throughout the quarter or until sentencing
47 stayed on bail despite committing an additional offence
64 offended and were moved from bail into custodial remand
12 did not offend but were moved from bail into custodial remand.

Published: July 7, 2022