KEY POINTS:
A judge has slammed the Government for failing to provide secure facilities for intellectually disabled young people who are a danger to the public.
Wellington District Court Judge John Walker said there was nowhere suitable to place a 14-year-old arsonist with a mild intellectual disability who set fire to three schools in the Hutt Valley last October.
The Health Ministry official in charge of the issue, Lester Mundell, confirmed that it was "not clear" who was responsible for filling the gap.
Judge Walker's comments on March 5, just reported in the latest Youth Court newsletter, state that the public "would be astonished to hear the story that is portrayed in the reports that I have".
"A person from whom the public need protection, at age 14, who cannot be offered any facility other than jail to protect the community ... and a sentence of imprisonment for a 14-year-old with an intellectual disability would be an inhumane response for any criminal justice system."
The judge said a psychological report dated January 30 found that the offender, who could not be named, had "a complex and difficult childhood" and consumed alcohol and butane before lighting the three fires on two successive nights.
He was "vulnerable to the influence of others due to his low level of intellectual functioning".
"While it was agreed that an intensive supportive wraparound programme ... was required, because of his age (14) there was nowhere for him to go which would deliver the level of control and intervention required (he would have to be placed with adult men who suffer from intellectual disability)," Judge Walker said.
"Clearly, what is missing is a facility to provide care and assistance to young people. He cannot be the only young person in New Zealand who needs this level of support."
The judge said the Health Ministry, CYFS and Corrections Department "each conveyed the impression that the responsibility lay with another department".
He eventually sentenced the boy last month to intensive supervision and community detention at a residential programme with a one-on-one "tracker" at all times.
IHC advocacy director Trish Grant said yesterday that the judge was correct that there was "a gap in services to young offenders with an intellectual disability".
Two secure units for intellectually disabled offenders, with 20 beds between them, were opened in 2004 and 2006 at the former Porirua mental hospital near Wellington and at the Mason Clinic in Auckland. But they are primarily for adult offenders.
Mr Mundell said officials did not want to create a special unit for young intellectually disabled offenders because they needed to be close to their families.
"We are talking probably 10 to 20 young persons at any one time."
