The Ram Raid Bill: Disabled and traumatised children will be hit hardest /A.J Hendry
About 50% of those in the youth justice and care system are children with a disability or mental illness. This bill will hit them.
This week the Ram Raid Bill begins its journey through Select Committee.
The Bill was introduced by the last Government in the midst of the election campaign last year. The than Labour Government claimed that the Ram Raid Bill would provide a practical and meaningful response to Ram Raids by providing a deterrent for those who might consider participating in a Ram Raid.
The problem is, well, that it won’t.
Instead of practically and meaningfully engaging with the experts and the evidence, the Bill ignores what we know about the context to this offending and how to intervene, and instead opts for a punitive approach.
At the time of introduction, the Bill was largely opposed by child and justice advocates, psychologists, community groups, and Youth Development organizations. In fact, a group of almost twenty organizations (of which my own organization Kick Back is a part) came together to voice our concerns and highlight to all political parties the issues with this Bill.
The sectors concerns were ignored, Labour pushed on, and now the Bill is preparing to go through select committee where it will join a tranche of punitive, youth justice related policies which risk further criminalizing our children.
Besides from the Bill lacking any evidence to show that it would be successful in reducing Ram Raids, the Government’s own disclosure statement, submitted by the Ministry of Justice highlighted that the Bill was inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, due to the introduction of a mechanism which would bring children as young as 12 and 13, without a prior conviction, into the Youth Justice System. This would essentially criminalize children and is a move which is out of step with UN advice regarding the age of criminal responsibility (which the UN suggests should be at least 14 years of age).
The Bill also highlighted that, though those who will be impacted by the Bill will largely be māori and children with disabilities, there had been no consultation with either groups of people, creating a risk that the Bill will unduly impact on these children and potentially be in breach of Te Tiriti. The Ministry of Justice also notified the Government that the Ram Raid Bill would be inconsistent with our obligations under the United Nations Convention on Disability Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
It is important to understand what we are doing by introducing this, Bill.
The children the Bill targets are kids who have suffered significant trauma, will be experiencing poverty, some will lack safe, stable, or even any place to call home. Already about half of those who are in the Youth Justice System and those coming through the care system are children with significant mental illness and as we’ve said already, children with disabilities.
There is no evidence I am aware of that indicates that punitive approaches and bringing children into the justice system will prevent them from becoming involved in this sort of harmful behaviour. Instead, there is a mountain of evidence that points in the other direction, showing that what works for these children is taking a practical approach, getting to the root of what is going on for that child and for their whānau, and responding in a meaningful way which engages the child and their whānau in targeted, wrap around support.
The real problem here is that we aren’t doing this to the extent that we need to for this group of children. We aren’t providing these children with the support they need to heal from the trauma they’ve experiences, we aren’t ensuring they have a safe place to eat and enough food on the table, we aren’t providing them and their whānau with the support their community needs to care for those with a mental illness and/or a disability. We aren’t investing in ensuring these children have their basic human needs met, which we know, if we did, would provide a practical and meaningful response to the issues our community is facing.
So instead, by introducing this Bill, we are choosing to punish, rather than heal. To punch down on some of our most vulnerable children, rather than care for and Manaaki.
We must be clear. If this bill proceeds through parliament and becomes law it will target disabled, impoverished and traumatised children who will likely lack the cognitive ability to make the healthy, value-based decisions the last Government believed the Bill would encourage these children to make.
The Bill will criminalize children, funnelling them into the Youth Justice System, and participate in a continued cycle of offending and punishment, which will only make a greater impact upon our community.
No one is served by the implementation of this bill.
At the end of the day the Ram Raid Bill provides us with an opportunity. An opportunity to ask, what sort of society do we want, what sort of people do we want to be?
Do we want to be a people that punishes children who are desperately crying out for help?
Or are we, Aotearoa, a people who choose Love, who value support and care, who don’t turn away when the most vulnerable amongst us are in need.
The choice is ours.
#LoveIsTheWay
Sign the petition to Stop the Ram Raid Bill here.
A.J. Hendry is a Laidlaw College graduate, and a Youth Development Worker and rangatahi advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads Kick Back, a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent.