Youth Justice – how we're doing

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

Support following offending

Of young people with a past Youth Justice referral, 78% had no contact with us this quarter. The proportion of young people who have only been in contact with Oranga Tamariki Youth Justice once has been increasing over the past two years (as shown in the blue bars).

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:

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

Re-offending

Almost half (47%) of young people who had a family group conference (FGC) this quarter had only one FGC. Young people who have had between one and four FGCs remain the majority. Very few young people have more than ten FGCs.

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:

260 have had one family group conference
166 have had two to four family group conferences
81 have had five to nine family group conferences
42 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 is higher than the September quarter of the previous year, following the significant drop in June 2020. Residence based placements continue to make up the majority of custodial placements in Youth Justice (at around 70%).

Note: Work is underway to query the Police Custody figure as it does not align with other data sources.

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:

93 rangatahi had a community based placement
251 rangatahi had a residence placement
21 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

The average number of days on custodial placement decreased across placement type this quarter (with the exception of police custody which remained the same). Supervision with residence placements remain the longest at 108 days. The length of these placements is strongly influenced by the sentence length given by the court.

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 1.2 days
The average length of a Supervision With Residence placement was 108.1 days
The average length of a Residence on Remand placement was 33.7 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

There has been a significant increase in the proportion of cases initially placed on custodial remand this quarter. While there has been a decrease in the number of young people released on bail after their first court appearance, they still account for 73% of cases. Certain statuses may be overestimated in the quarter due to pending cases, and will stabilise in the next 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:

38 rangatahi were released on custodial remand
50 rangatahi were released on custodial remand then later went onto bail
275 rangatahi were released on bail
13 rangatahi were released into the community

Escalation of bail

Almost three-quarters of young people released on bail were not remanded in custody during their case this quarter. There has been a decrease in the proportion of young people who are released on bail and remain on bail throughout the case, however, they still account for the majority of cases.

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:

164 did not offend and stayed on bail throughout the quarter or until sentencing
58 stayed on bail despite committing an additional offence
84 offended and were moved from bail into custodial remand
19 did not offend but were moved from bail into custodial remand.

Published: November 26, 2021

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