Court halted by restorative justice issues
Christchurch’s main police court came to a halt this morning over restorative justice issues.
The No 1 Christchurch District Court was recessed for a short time when Judge Gary MacAskill found a note on the bench telling him that the Restorative Justice Agency had no capacity left for new cases, and not to remand any more cases to them.
He came back into court to explain to counsel that he was not going to take any notice of the note, and said there was a service but it just needed to be funded.
He said there had been no response to the issues raised by judges, but he was going to follow the legislature and will keep remanding people for the restorative justice conference process.
Legislative changes that came in late last year have meant that cases with “an identifiable victim” must be remanded to allow a restorative justice conference to take place.
The law change gives judges no discretion and has meant that many cases which previously would have been dealt with on the spot now have to be remanded to be dealt with.
That factor is leading to the number of sentencings to balloon, but it has also overwhelmed the Christchurch restorative justice system’s capacity to deal with referrals where they arrange a meeting between an offender and the victim.
Christchurch judges have been vocal about how the new legislation has not been well thought out and was causing difficulties for the court system.
Category: News
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