Nowhere left to go

Judge Andrew Becroft said this needs to be banned, with the exception of a 24-hour window allowing transport arrangements to be made.

Successive iterations of Child, Youth and Family had looked at the issue of police cells but at times when youth crime dropped, it was taken out of focus.

‘‘Then [youth crime] begins to rise again and having the police cell option on the books is a convenient overflow when there’s a lack of resources and prioritisation. Until we flat out remove the option from statute books, we’ll never get lasting permanent change.’’

Becroft said rather than increasing secure residences’ capacity, there needed to be a restoration of a ‘‘suite of communitybased options’’, including community homes. ‘‘ Too many of those homes were mothballed or sold off which then left remand in a youth justice residence, even for those who didn’t theoretically need it, the only option.’’

There were too many children held in youth justice residences who would be better served in community homes.

Removing the lower-risk offenders out of youth justice facilities would create space for just the most high-risk young offenders.

Nelson Police Youth Aid officer Charlie Parfitt said there was strong demand in Nelson for community caregivers.

‘‘Police cells are not the right place for kids, but sometimes there’s no other option. More than a secure residence here in Nelson, we need youth justice caregivers who can work at short notice with kids who need a place to live,’’ he said.

Many young offenders didn’t need to be ‘‘locked up’’, he said.

‘‘Sometimes it’s just a place to live, settle down, be on bail, have regular meals. All of those important things 99 per cent of kids take for granted, these kids don’t have and that’s driving a lot of their offending.’’

Oranga Tamariki’s general manager of youth justice residences, Ben Hannifin, said capacity at youth justice residences had increased from 136 beds to 150 in the last year.

Instead of increasing this further, Oranga Tamariki was working on community bed options, including homes for young people and one-to-one caregiver options.

Hannifin said the latter was likely to be appropriate for Nelson. ‘‘There’s not the demand for a house, for a residence, in Nelson,’’ he said.

There was no timeline for when Nelson would be in line for community options, however, beyond Oranga Tamariki’s goal of establishing 50 new community beds across the country within the next 18 months.

There are 20 community beds available currently, but none are in Nelson or the top of the South.