Help for Maori offenders

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 22

Help for Maori offenders

PA Wellington Provisions in the new criminal justice legislation will help the present Maori renaissance, according to the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere. The Criminal Justice Bill before Parliament would not only offer an opportunity for young Maori offenders to be rehabilitated, but also provide them with the means of rediscovering tribal roots. Under the new legislation allowance can be made for traditional methods of dispute settlement, especially where Maori or Pacific Island offenders are involved, he said. Maori community representatives will be able to apply through the courts fur permission to remove offenders, with their consent, from jail and place them in the care of local groups for the rest of their prison sentences. Mr Wetere said that the legislation was being framed so that when it

became law on October 1, it would provide a second chance to rehabilitate Maori offenders. The Minister of Justice, Mr Raimer, noted earlier that provisions in the bill would allow the court considerable flexibility not only in making the punishment fit the crime but in making it fit the criminal. He referred to a submission that the Statutes Revision Committee considering the bill received from the Auckland-based Te Waka E Manaaki Trust, which was a “grassroots” example of how the bill would open further doors after jail gates had closed. Once a sentence was passed, a local Maori group could approach the offender in prison to obtain his consent to introducing Taha Maori. If he agreed, representatives of his tribe or family would be called in to place the offender in the care of local people. The trust’s submission said the prison authorities

would have to recognise the status of the local Maori group and get its help and co-operation in dealing with the inmate. “We know that prison superintendents are reluctant to give away any of their powers but in the light of continuing failure something has to be done,” the submission said. The trust saw the role of Maori elders as being supportive of, rather than rivalling, the superintendent. Mr Palmer said the main aim of the bill was to take advantage of this sort of communication, which the submission described as being “between those being administered and those being paid to do the administering.” Mr Wetere said Mr Palmer was keen to make use of every social facility available to help Maori and Pacific Island offenders from either offending or reoffending. The legislation- meant in

part a revival of Maoridom and partly a reawakening to the traditions and customs of Maori people. “Maori youth want to understand who they are and also to take all those other things on board. I think in that sort of renaissance and development, people have to look at the best ways to do that,” Mr Wetere said. Mr Doug Hauraki, Maori Affairs director of policy, administration and community services, described the legislation as a formalisation of whakapakari, a scheme established last August to provide greater tribal involvement with Maori youths in urban centres. A positive result had been the establishment of tribal links with Maori offenders in prison, he said. Already one Paremoremo inmate had been relocated within his tribal area and had gained back his job and family.