Detention move criticised

Press, 20 September 1980, Page 6

Detention move criticised

The Justice Department’s: decision to close all residen-. tial periodic detention cen-, tres was criticised last even-; ing by the District Probation Officer in Christchurch, Mr D. D. Leech. The department’s annual! report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, says that the cen-; tres will be closed progressively during the next five: years. The St Albans Street centre, one of three in' Christchurch, will close later this year. According to the depart-! merit’s report, a recent study showed that. residential : periodic detention was no.i more effective in reducing reoffending than non-resi-r dential periodic detention, (j Residential periodic deten- I tion, introduced in New Zea-ji land 18 years ago, involves I taking offenders aged be-: tween 15 and 19, inclusive,/ into custody at week-ends, n

Mr Leech said last eventing that at least one of the ithree centres in Christi church, which had a total of 54 .beds, should be retained. “There is certainly a place for the sentence of residenjtial periodic detention for selected offenders as far as probation officers are concerned,” said Mr Leech. I He said that work with (young offenders done by! staff of the centres, in conjunction with probation officers, had proved ex(temely valuable. !- "We are able to get better results with some offenders in a semi-custodial state than in the looser circumstances of probation supervision or non-residential periodic detention, simply because we have more direct contact with therin,” said Mr Leech. The other Christchurch centres are in Bristol Street and Forfar Street, St Albans.