Tēnā koe 

Thank you for recently meeting with Te Uepū and being part of the public conversation on justice reform. I am following up on the recent engagement between your organisation and Te Uepū. I understand that you were promised recent data about young people held on remand.

I believe most of the information you requested is in the report from Oranga Tamariki – Youth Remand Trends: 2011/12 to 2015/16.

For your specific question – does ‘time on remand’ count against any sentence young people may receive? The advice that I have received from Oranga Tamariki is that there is no formal mechanism in the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 to allow time spent on custodial remand to count as time served against a Supervision with Residence order imposed by the Youth Court.  However, time spent on custodial remand could still be relevant to the decision-making process around the appropriate response to the offending.

As you’re probably aware, the judge considers a number of things when making a decision including: outcome recommendations made at the FGC and/or in the social worker report, the factors to be taken into account on sentencing listed in s284, and direction given in s289 to impose the least restrictive outcome adequate in the circumstances. Once these are assessed, a shorter Supervision with Residence order, or a non-custodial sentence may be considered appropriate for the young person.

I hope this information is useful for you and your organisation.

We thank you for giving up your valuable time to meet with Te Uepū.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. We will send you updates so that you can stay involved in this important ongoing conversation.

Ngā mihi nui,
Malisha Frawley
Advisor
Secretariat to Te Uepū Hāpai I Te Ora I Advisory Group

Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata I Safe and Effective Justice
Tāhū o te Ture I  Ministry of Justice
P +64 4 4949 889 | Ext 50889
L3 Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
www.justice.govt.nz