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Speaker 1: The youth court is a good idea in theory because

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Speaker 1: it tries to steer kids away from an adult prison

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Speaker 1: in the life of crime. But when it fails spectacularly

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Speaker 1: and we all paid the price for its leniency. Take

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 1: nothing particularly youthful about your actions. You're not acting like

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Speaker 1: a youth who's made a wee mistake and needs a

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Speaker 1: hand turning things around. You acted like a thug, and

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Speaker 1: more should be done to stop another crime from being committed.

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Speaker 1: This guy was seen running from the old man's house

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Speaker 1: with a crowbar, for goodness sakes, so the judge in

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Speaker 1: these new charges has given him home detention for the

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Speaker 1: second round offending. So you can beat an old man,

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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.

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Speaker 1: Keeping him out of jail might be better for him

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Speaker 1: in the long term, we're told, but is it better

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Speaker 1: for us the public walking down the street, or god forbid,

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Speaker 1: sleeping in our own beds at night? For more from

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Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks

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Speaker 1: it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.