Jails breed crime, says judge
A retiring judge has openly admitted that he never liked sending offenders to prison.
‘‘I don’t like putting people in jail. I think it’s a breeding ground for crime,’’ Judge Chris Sygrove said, days after his tenure as a fulltime member of the judiciary came to an end.
Four years after his appointment to the judicial bench in Taranaki, Judge Sygrove is bidding the permanent role goodbye as he is about to turn 70, the statutory age of retirement for judges in New Zealand.
His replacement will be Judge Gregory Hikaka.
However, Judge Sygrove won’t be handing in his robes just yet, as he takes on a two-year stint of holding an acting warrant, a locum-like role where he will do short stints to cover members of the judiciary who take leave.
The job of a judge is something he described as ‘‘quite satisfying’’.
Being in the hot seat, tasked with making tough decisions and coping with the high profile the role involved never fazed him.
‘‘I’ve never laid awake at night worrying about getting appealed,’’ he said. ‘‘I like to think I don’t make basic errors.’’
Before becoming a judge, Judge Sygrove spent 35 years in private legal practice in Wellington.
From 1979 to 1996 he was a partner in McCulloch & Sygrove before he became a sole practitioner, working primarily in the field of relationship property law.
While he ‘‘quite liked crime’’, he admitted getting to grips with the role of a district court judge had its challenges in the beginning. ‘‘It’s a fairly steep learning curve when you first start.’’
One of the key themes he saw from the bench was the role family dysfunction played in the lives of the people who appeared before him.
The havoc domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and social instability wrought on people’s lives was obvious on a day-to-day basis and detailed in almost every report he read about offenders, he said.
‘‘All I see really is the adult result of that dysfunctional upbringing.’’
Following his final court sitting last week, Judge Sygrove, along with wife Robyn, are preparing to move back to their Te Horo farm, on the Ka¯ piti coast.
But the couple, who have four children, will maintain the ties they have in New Plymouth, including their house.
He said he knew little about the city before moving here, but it had since become a big part of their lives.
‘‘We didn’t realise New Plymouth would grip us like it has.’’
And it won’t be long before Judge Sygrove returns as his first judicial assignment with the acting warrant is in the New Plymouth District Court.
He will preside here for a week from January 15.