Judge says juvenile justice remains at ‘bottom of pile’

A judge has described youth justice as being at “the bottom of the criminal justice system” and lamented the lack of training for judges and lawyers.

Judge John O’Connor made the comments in a lengthy article entitled Reflections on the Justice and Welfare Debate for Children in the Irish Criminal Justice System and published in the Irish Judicial Studies Journal.

He said “meeting needs has been by overlaid by addressing fears” and, in the context of juvenile justice, it could be detrimental to dealing effectively with children in conflict with the law, who, by their nature of being a child, should be treated different from adult offenders.

While he referred to some positive changes in recent years, Judge O’Connor wrote:

Unlike medicine which has a speciality in paediatrics, Irish law has relegated youth justice to the bottom of the criminal justice system with little or no training for lawyers or judges.

"Legislatively at least, section 72 of the 2001 [Children] Act provides that before transacting business in the Children Court, judges should ‘participate in any relevant course of training or education which may be required by the President of the District Court’.”

He said there is “no elaboration on the type of training, level of experience and expertise required of judges up for appointment to the Children Court” and that “it appears that this is another area where law and practice fail to coincide, with no formal training on youth justice being made available to the judiciary”.

As for sentencing, he said: “While judicial discretion does allow for individualising of the sentence, the reality is that lack of legal training in Ireland, particularly in the context of childhood issues, can give rise to unintended adverse consequences for children from both a justice and welfare point of view.

"This is despite many children who enter the criminal justice system present with complex childhood behaviour issues have multiple health issues [including mental health], come from chaotic backgrounds, are often themselves victims of violence, abuse or neglect and are unable to satisfactorily thrive in our society before they reach detention.”