Why the Ram Raid Bill won’t fix the problem - Aaron Hendry

The Ram Raid Bill ignores what we know about the context of this offending and how to intervene and instead opts for a punitive approach, says Aaron Hendry. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

OPINION

This week, the Ram Raid Bill begins its journey through a select committee.

The bill was introduced by the last Government in the midst of the election campaign last year. The then Labour Government claimed that the Ram Raid Bill would provide a practical and meaningful response to ram raids by providing a deterrent for those who might consider participating in such a crime.

The problem is, well, that it won’t.

Instead of practically and meaningfully engaging with the experts and the evidence, the bill ignores what we know about the context of this offending and how to intervene, and instead opts for a punitive approach.

At the time of introduction, the bill was largely opposed by child and justice advocates, psychologists, community groups and youth development organisations. In fact, a group of almost 20 organisations (of which my own organisation Kick Back is a part) came together to voice our concerns and highlight to all political parties the issues with this bill.

The sector’s concerns were ignored, Labour pushed on, and now the bill is preparing to go through a select committee where it will join a tranche of punitive, youth-justice-related policies which risk further criminalising our children.

Besides the bill lacking any evidence to show that it would be successful in reducing ram raids, a disclosure statement, submitted by the Ministry of Justice, highlighted that the bill was inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, due to the introduction of a mechanism which would bring children as young as 12 and 13, without a prior conviction, into the Youth Justice System. This would essentially criminalise children and is a move which is out of step with UN advice regarding the age of criminal responsibility (which the UN suggests should be at least 14 years of age).

The bill also highlighted that, though those who will be impacted will largely be Māori and children with disabilities, there had been no consultation with either group of people, creating a risk that the bill will unduly impact these children and potentially be in breach of Te Tiriti. The Ministry of Justice also notified the Government that the Ram Raid Bill would be inconsistent with our obligations under the United Nations Convention on Disability Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

It is important to understand what we are doing by introducing this bill.

The children the bill targets are kids who have suffered significant trauma, will be experiencing poverty, while some will lack a safe, stable or even any place to call home. Already about half of those who are in the Youth Justice System and those coming through the care system are children with significant mental illness and, as we’ve said already, children with disabilities.

Will the Ram Raid Bill really be a deterrent? Photo / Paul Taylor

There is no evidence I am aware of that indicates that punitive approaches and bringing children into the justice system will prevent them from becoming involved in this sort of harmful behaviour. Instead, there is a mountain of evidence that points in the other direction, showing that what works for these children is taking a practical approach, getting to the root of what is going on for that child and for their whānau, and responding in a meaningful way which engages the child and their whānau in targeted, wrap-around support.

The real problem here is that we aren’t doing this to the extent that we need to for this group of children. We aren’t providing these children with the support they need to heal from the trauma they’ve experienced, we aren’t ensuring they have a safe place to eat and enough food on the table, we aren’t providing them and their whānau with the support their community needs to care for those with a mental illness and/or a disability. We aren’t investing in ensuring these children have their basic human needs met, which we know, if we did, would provide a practical and meaningful response to the issues our community is facing.

So instead, by introducing this bill, we are choosing to punish, rather than heal. To punch down on some of our most vulnerable children, rather than care for them and show manaaki [support, hospitality, care].

We must be clear. If this bill proceeds through Parliament and becomes law, it will target disabled, impoverished and traumatised children who will likely lack the cognitive ability to make the healthy, value-based decisions the last Government believed the bill would encourage these children to make.

The bill will criminalise children, funnelling them into the Youth Justice System, and participate in a continued cycle of offending and punishment, which will only make a greater impact upon our community.

No one is served by the implementation of this bill.

At the end of the day, the Ram Raid Bill provides us with an opportunity. An opportunity to ask: what sort of society do we want, what sort of people do we want to be?

Do we want to be a people that punishes children who are desperately crying out for help?

Or are we, Aotearoa, a people who choose love, who value support and care, who don’t turn away when the most vulnerable among us are in need?

The choice is ours.

A.J. Hendry is a youth development worker who leads Kick Back, a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness.