As I mentioned yesterday, Ron Mark's Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill is guaranteed to pass its first reading, Labour having sold its soul (and first reading support) to retain power. Fortunately, it looks like a rather different story once the bill emerges from select committee. Labour has already indicated that it is unlikely to support the bill through its second reading, the Greens won't support it, and now the Maori Party has said "Prison for twelve year olds? Absolutely not". I guess they at least care about children even if they don't care about workers.
So, we'll have to put up with a six-month spleen-vent by the "hang 'em high" brigade, and then we can probably relax. Unless the Maori Party change their mind, of course...
the baisic problem here is that punsihments for adults might not be effective for children so it is quite reasonable to have different strategies.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that children are not always oblivious to concequences so you may not want to let them get away with crimes in some cases. And it is in a sense unfair to have arbitrary rules since long before I was 12 I was clearly cognisant of concequences of my actions while others in my age group still aren't.