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Ryan Bridge: Youth Court is a good idea – when it works · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The youth court is a good idea in theory because
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: it tries to steer kids away from an adult prison
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in the life of crime. But when it fails spectacularly
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and we all paid the price for its leniency. Take
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the teenager at Dante, Eden, for example. When he was sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: he bashed a seventy eight year old man nearly to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: death while the old guy slept in his bed. The
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  Speaker 1: judge gave him a warning and told him to keep
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  Speaker 1: out of trouble. If that's not lenient, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what it is. Did he say, out of trouble? No stuff? Reports?
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  Speaker 1: Three months later he robbed a bloke in Wellington, stole
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  Speaker 1: from a petrol station and resisted arrest by the cops.
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  Speaker 1: Now he's eighteen, he'll be dealt with by the same judge,
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  Speaker 1: but in a district court, not a youth court. I'm
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: all for circond chances and the youth court in some cases,
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  Speaker 1: but surely if you beat nearly to death an old
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  Speaker 1: man in his bed in such a brutal fashion, there's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: nothing particularly youthful about your actions. You're not acting like
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: a youth who's made a wee mistake and needs a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: hand turning things around. You acted like a thug, and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: more should be done to stop another crime from being committed.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: This guy was seen running from the old man's house
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: with a crowbar, for goodness sakes, so the judge in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: these new charges has given him home detention for the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: second round offending. So you can beat an old man,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: mug another rip off a gas station, and fight with
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  Speaker 1: the cops and never see the inside of a cell.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Keeping him out of jail might be better for him
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: in the long term, we're told, but is it better
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: for us the public walking down the street, or god forbid,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: sleeping in our own beds at night? For more from
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.