Struggle to keep young offenders out of police cells

Young people are held in police cells when no specialist youth accommodation is available. File picture / Brett Phibbs

At least 20 extra permanent beds for young offenders are needed to prevent them being held in police cells, Child Youth and Family (CYF) says.

Chief executive Peter Hughes said the organisation had come up with moves to create between 25 and 33 more permanent beds in response to a chronic shortage of youth facilities.

The initiatives follow an outcry about the shortage of available beds for young offenders in youth facilities resulting in them being in police cells, sometimes for up to a week.

In May, CYF said it was considering a number of options, including bail for young offenders, accommodating them in family homes, or fitting them with ankle bracelets as stop-gap measures to deal with the shortage.

In a statement yesterday, it stopped short of recommending fitting ankle bracelets, but endorsed the options of bail and accommodation in supervised family homes.

Mr Hughes said CYF needed 20 extra permanent beds to meet its target of having no young people held in police cells for longer than 24 hours.

Five beds available immediately have already been identified and two more will be available by the end of September, he said. By Christmas, he hoped to have a total of 15 extra beds.

These beds were available on a short-term basis, and the organisation was working towards a long-term answer.

"If all the options we are currently considering are progressed, we could create 25 to 33 more youth justice beds, supported by more community placements," he said.

Community placements would see young offenders placed in the community under the care of suitable supervision.

A manager had been appointed to act as liaison between the courts, police and CYF social workers, in order to speed up finding placements for young people.

Other initiatives were:
* Increased use of supported bail
* Develop a tool to assess the risk of various placement options for young people appearing before the Youth Court
* Expand current five-day placement service for young people in police custody to a seven-day service
* Make greater use of supervised (supported) family homes

- NZPA