M.P. attacks child jail bill

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 4

M.P. attacks child jail bill

I PA Wellington There were more sophisticated ways of handling children convicted of murder or (manslaughter than jailing 1 them, Parliament was told ■ Mr D. R. Lange (Lab., Mangere) said that Parliament was taking the “easy I way out” of a difficult prob- ! lem by adopting a clause of j the Children and Young Persons Amendment Bill which (allowed 10-year-olds to be > tried on such charges before I a Supreme Court jury. The present age for trial I in open court is 14. Childi ren below this age are dealt with by the Children’s and Young Persons Court. Speaking during the debate on the bill’s reporting back from the Social Services Select Committee. Mr Lange said that the present law allowed for children aged 10 to be put under the care of the Social Welfare Department until the age of 20. But if the new clause was adopted, parole provisions

| could mean that a convicted murderer could be sentenced at the age of 10 and allowed back into the community seven years later. “1 suggest we just have not grasped what to do with people of 10 who kill,” said Mr Lange. Parliament had to give more study to what constituted a deterrent for young children and try to find some other way of dealing with the rare unfortunates. The solution could perhaps be the establishment of a different type of court with some sensible arrangement for looking after offenders. Mr M. Rata (Lab., Northern Maori) said that there was much unease about the clause and called for it to be deleted from the bill pending the Royal Commission on the Court’s report to Parliament. Of 17 submissions before the select committee, only one had proposed any change in the present law.