Justice and Constitutional Development National Prosecution Authority

1
Department of Justice and Constitutional
Development
Child Justice Bill No. 49 of 2002 Presentation
to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and
Constitutional Development
20 February 2003
2
Existing activities and key changes required

• The cycle of events following arrest
• In the current system, the general
• pattern is that children are arrested
• and then appear in court within 48 hours
• The case is then often remanded again
• and again for further investigation
• In many cases the child remains in
• custody either in a police cell or in prison

3
Child Justice Bill

• Preliminary Inquiry
• This is a new procedure that aims to interrupt
  the normal cycle of events
• It takes the place of the first
• appearance aims to look at the
• case in some detail, to determine if it can be
  diverted, and if not, where the child will be
  placed pre-trial and
• during trial

4
Child Justice Bill

• Diversion
• NPA has issued policy guidelines,
• but diversion is not equally applied-
• legal framework will assist.
• Discussions with partners regarding standards for
  diversion
• Audit of programmes complete, report forthcoming
• Bill allows diversion through orders-
• programmes not required in these
• cases

5
Existing activities and key changes required

• Remands by court
• Current process for remands is inefficient.
  Statistics show that one
• child was remanded 72 times
• 14 day remand requirement aimed at protecting
  children but in fact chokes the roll, docket
  constantly circulating

6
Child Justice Bill

• New procedure for remands
• Child Justice Bill proposes that a child awaiting
  trial in prison be brought back to court every 30
  days
• Additional measure to reduce pre-trial time
• a six month limit on keeping children in
  custody (this does not apply to murder, rape and
  robbery cases)
• These measures are aimed at making investigation
  more efficient and for trials
• to be completed more speedily

7
Existing activities and key changes required

• Court process
• 747 magistrates courts, children may
• appear at any one. Currently no official
  specialisation juvenile courts administrative
  arrangement in some urban areas
• Personnel not specially selected or trained

8
Child Justice Bill

• Child Justice Courts
• The Bill provides at clause 50 (1) (a) that any
  court before which a child appears for plea and
  trial must be regarded as a child justice court
• Thus the setting up of new courts is not required
  

9
Existing activities and key changes required

• Sentencing options
• Over-utilization of imprisonment as a sentence.
• The number of children being sentenced to
  imprisonment has risen in recent years, and
  children are receiving longer
• sentences.
• Approximately half of all children serving
  sentences in prison have been convicted of
  property crimes.
• There are children aged between 7 and 14 serving
  prison sentences in our country, a cause for
  great concern.
• Reform Schools insufficient coverage

10
Child Justice Bill

• Sentencing Options
• Community based and restorative sentencing
  encouraged by the Bill
• Magistrates and Prosecutors need to
• be aware of alternative options
• Bill refers to residential facility which
  broadens the options to using other facilities
  besides Reform Schools

11
Existing activities and key changes required

• Judicial Review
• Currently any term of imprisonment of
• more than 3 months (magistratelt 7 yrs) or
  more than 6 months (magistrate gt 7 years) goes on
  automatic review
• This has been of assistance to numerous sentenced
  children, and helped to set guidelines for good
  practice

12
Child Justice Bill

• Judicial Review
• Bill proposes slight expansion of grounds for
  automatic review any sentence involving
  residence
• Will not place a burden on the system
• 11 (178) of all children in prison serving less
  than 6 months

13
Existing activities and key changes required

• Legal Representation
• Children, like adults, have the right to legal
  representation where substantial injustice would
  otherwise occur
• Children whose families cannot afford
• legal fees can obtain representation by
• Legal Aid Board
• Although of children being represented has
  increased, a sample study in 2000 indicated less
  than 50 are appearing with legal representation

14
Child Justice Bill

• Legal Representation
• Bill provides for state funded legal
  representation when child is detained, when there
  is a likelihood
• that a sentence involving detention may
  result, or where child is below age of 14 years.
  Children
• may not waive this right
• Non waiver clause categories correspond with
  cases where a substantial injustice would
  otherwise occur
• No substantial cost increases expected, however,
  as fewer cases expected to go to trial

15
No additional personnel required

• Magistrates and Prosecutors will spend
• more time on preliminary inquiry but this is
  off-set by less time spent on trials.
• Magistrates may have to recuse them-
• selves, not a problem in urban areas, but
  elsewhere may cause travel and subsistence costs,
  and these have been factored in.

16
Training

• Court personnel will need to be trained regarding
  the new procedures
• Development of training materials is underway,
  general awareness raising has already taken place
• Donor funding available for the finalisation of
  training materials once Bill is passed as well as
  for the actual training process

17
New Infrastructure

• The Bill empowers the Minister to establish
• One Stop Child Justice Centres
• Two such centres already exist and an inter-
• sectoral planning process for the roll out of
  
• these centres as a best practice is underway
• Additional funds requested for this purpose
• were allocated by Treasury. This amount, as
• well as the current use of roll over funds
  and donor support place the department in a
  strong position to ensure that there is at least
  one One Stop Child Justice Centre in every
  province by the end of 2005.

18
Monitoring

• The Bill provides for regulation regarding
  procedures to be put in place to monitor
• and assess the proper application and
  compliance with this Act.
• The Department, with the Inter-sectoral Committee
  on Child Justice, has already begun to plan for
  structures and procedures for monitoring. Money
  has been allocated in the departments budget to
  assist with this process and there is also donor
  funding earmarked for this purpose

19
Conclusion

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional
  Development and the National Prosecuting
  Authority are committed to improving service
  delivery for children in the criminal justice
  system.
• Whilst legislation is only one aspect of this,
  the Child Justice Bill offers a sound framework
  for service delivery that is efficient and
  effective, whilst also protecting children and
  balancing their rights and needs with the
  interests of society as a whole.