‘Costs nothing but a change of attitude’: Lessons from New Zealand’s youth justice system

“He wasn’t meaning you’re going to have a language course … he was talking about a generation that had been alienated from knowing who they actually were, and you can’t really talk about your own culture without understanding what the language is,” His Honour said.

“What matters when you’re talking to them is establishing that connection and grounding them in their identity, so a lot of the work we have been doing in New Zealand has been based on the starting point of trying to reconnect young people to who they really are.”

Presenting at the Bugmy Bar Book’s Solution Focused Justice Symposium, Chief Judge Taumaunu told the audience of Australian and New Zealand judicial officers, advocates and chief legal professionals that solutions-focused justice required a courtroom that was willing and able to make the necessary cultural adjustments.

Courts in both countries, but particularly Australia, should start by inviting the community into the courtroom and ensuring judicial officers receive the best possible evidence, either through information sharing or asking questions of those in the room.

Chief Judge Taumaunu advised these courts to improve processes for victims and witnesses, encourage more people to be heard in the courtroom, tone down the formalities and use plain language.

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“This is a legal system that has done incredible damage … and having communities buy into the solution is a very important, and probably key part, of what we need to do going forward,” he said.

Judge John Walker of the District Court of New Zealand said youth defendants between the ages of 18 and 25 are not yet at a stage where their brains have been fully developed and are likely struggling with recent trauma, barriers to participation, and disability.

Already a foreboding place to most, the inner workings of a courtroom – complete with the entrance of the judge and the robes – can be much more difficult for young people who have had no real experience of the justice system, Judge Walker added.

Once the “dense jargon” is added, Judge Walker said, it was little wonder these young people are leaving the courtrooms and asking other people what the sentencing really meant for them.

In addition to reducing formalities and adopting plain language, Judge Walker advised judicial officers to bring their families and loved ones into the conversation, ensure that community is present, and have a team of experts who are also youth specialists.

“Not just a probation officer, but a young specialist probation officer; not just an alcohol and drug clinician, but an adolescence alcohol and drug clinician; not just a forensic nurse but an adolescent forensic nurse, so everybody is able to take into account the very special characteristics of young adults,” Judge Walker said.

For Judge Ida Malosi, principal youth court judge, the application of the law will only ever solve part of the problem. To fully address it, courtrooms must rely on the communities to fill the gaps.

“In the case of Pasifika young people, it’s about connecting them to their own people, placing value on the things they have been taught by their elders and their grandparents, reminding them that their name is connected to greatness,” Her Honour said.

“As a judge, I don’t associate their name with the charges that bear their family name, but remind them of the greatness and wonderful thing about having elders: they can always, always find somebody great within their lineage. It’s that one person [who] can uplift that whole moment and [be] able to look into the beautiful, brown eyes of the young person in front of you and say, ‘I see you’.”

Judge Malosi shared her “party trick” of asking a young person who the most important person in the room is – never has she received an answer other than an acknowledgement that they themselves are.

“I say ‘exactly’ because my most powerful weapon is to send you to prison or to send you to a youth justice facility, but you have the ultimate power because you have the power to change. I can’t do that, but I can clear the way to allow you to do that,” the judge said.

Reflecting on her panel on why the Pasifika Youth Court was established, Judge Malosi said it intended to remind people of the guiding principles in their lives and serve the people who come to the court “in a way that unleashes their full potential”.

“I know that’s corny and wishy-washy to say we want to release the full potential of our young people, but isn’t that a fact? That is why we have travelled to this conference, that is why we are all involved in problem solving. We’re here to identify what the problem is and to use our collective knowledge to find a solution,” Judge Malosi said.

Many of these solutions-focused tactics are already available to mainstream courtrooms, with Judge Walker explaining that it does not take resources or funding to use plain language and to be on high alert for trauma, disability, and barriers to participation.

“I encourage these underlying principles that can be adopted for nothing but a change of attitude,” Judge Walker said.