Arresting Remand in the Aotearoa New Zealand Youth Court: An Evaluation of the Remand Option Investigation Tool

Only a small proportion of about 25% of the young people residing in New Zealand’s five youth justice residential facilities are serving a custodial sentence. The remaining young people are there on remand, waiting to have their criminal charges determined in court. That such a high number of New Zealand rangatahi (young people) are remanded to youth justice secure residences, is concerning for a number of reasons. For instance, many young people have trauma histories, mental health problems, cognitive disabilities, and neurodiversities. These types of factors make this group of young people very vulnerable when detained in youth justice residences where they are separated from their whanau, community, and important relationships, whilst experiencing the stress, fear and uncertainty that comes with an unknown release date. This interaction of factors is a risk for ongoing chronic involvement with the justice system. The Remand Option Investigation Tool (the ROIT) was developed in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2016 in recognition of the harm caused by remand. The ROIT was designed to assist youth justice sector professionals in robust and balanced decision making around bail and remand placements. Its’ objectives were to assist the youth justice sector with gathering a wide spectrum of information pertaining to the young person which included, but was not limited to, information concerning their identity, exposure to trauma, strengths and protective factors, alongside offending and risk data. This information would be assessed and discussed against a backdrop of available placements, resulting in a thoughtfully considered recommendation of placement for the judiciary. The ROIT was piloted in three New Zealand youth courts over 2017 and 2018: Manukau, Christchurch and Rotorua. Eighteen youth justice stakeholders who participated in the ROIT pilot were interviewed for the current study about their thoughts. The findings indicate that they were largely in consensus with one another about the ROITs major strengths and weaknesses. In terms of strengths, they communicated that the level of information sharing, and collaboration was invaluable. These benefits allowed them to engage in rich pre-court discussions about the young person, and available placements – the extent to which they had not experienced in their usual Court practice. Many non-police participants also opined that the ROIT pilot reduced the number of oppositions-to-bail tendered by police during the pilot. In terms of weaknesses, they felt the ROIT was far too long, and time consuming for an existing court process which lacked the capacity to accommodate it. These factors undermined the ROITs practicality in their day-to-day work. This study will explore whether the ROIT achieved its objectives according to the ROIT participants, as well as its perceived strengths, weaknesses, and how it could have been improved. Implications for clinical practice and youth justice practice are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Clinical Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Tone-Graham, Veronica

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lambie, Ian

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/68930

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/68930