Time to transform NZ’s justice system
A five-year, cross-sector study led by AUT Law School aims to transform how New Zealand’s justice system and related agencies support whānau experiencing incarceration and mental health distress and addiction.
He Ture Kia Tika|Let the Law Be Right is the culmination of a Borrin Foundation-funded study that draws on the lived experiences of individuals, their whānau, and their communities to make evidence-based recommendations to change the justice system for the better.
The project is overseen by a core research team of Associate Professor Katey Thom, Research Project Manager Stella Black (Ngāi Tūhoe), and lived experience researchers Jess Hastings, and David Burnside from Odyssey House Trust, who completed his AUT Master of Law while working on the project. The co-design rōpū or team comprised a diverse group of external cultural advocates and research advisors, as well as AUT Professors Brian McKenna (Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences), Dean of Law, Khylee Quince (Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungungu), and Warren Brookbanks. Various law school students have also supported the rangahau over the last five years.
The report makes eight key recommendations, which reflect the collective insights and experiences shared in 45 iterative, co-designed pūrākau or stories with 45 whānau and hapori or community services from across the North Island. Their powerful pūrākau not only inform the recommendations, but they also bring to life and put into sometimes brutally stark focus the failure of the system to support whānau who want to move into recovery.
“In my 40+ years working in the legal system, this is the first time I have heard the user’s voice,” said Warren at the recent Auckland report launch at Hoani Waititi Marae, which played a central role in supporting and guiding the research. Guests at the event included whānau and hapori who participated in the study alongside representatives from the mental health and addiction services, Corrections, the Ombudsman’s Office, Ministry of Justice, Judiciary, and academia reflecting the wide impact of the research. The report was also launched in Wellington.
For Katey, one of the strengths of the study lies in the interweaving of personal quotes from whānau into the formal report.
For example, one participant shared that recovery can be and is often a non-linear journey, explaining that “...giving more people more chances along their way towards recovery would be helpful.” Another described the transformational power of cultural identity in supporting recovery journeys: “It’s about whānau, culture, recovery, and what is important to the person...supporting the whānau with the tino rangatiratanga.”
Katey says the themes identified in the research show how, by reframing the justice system’s approach to its most vulnerable clients, the courts and associated agencies can offer meaningful and sustained support to those who need it most.
“Two truths became apparent throughout the stories: many of the whānau had experienced trauma; and the justice system needs to adopt a trauma-informed approach. That means understanding the impacts of trauma across a wide spectrum of neurological, biological, psychological, spiritual, social, and cultural wellbeing. A trauma-informed approach focuses on acknowledging what has happened to someone rather than to identify what is wrong with them.”
He Ture Kia Tika | Let the Law Be Right makes eight key recommendations:
- Create the foundations for a trauma-informed justice system
- Strengthen prevention and early intervention
- Develop a smorgasbord of trauma-informed services
- Embed networks of peer support everywhere
- Enhance diversion and court processes through communication and consistency
- Transform the fabric of prisons
- Bolster planning and support for reintegration
- Address the growing experiences of financial hardship and poverty.
The core He Ture Kia Tika team acknowledges Hoani Waititi Marae, and particularly Shane White, for supporting this rangahau, as well as the full rōpū: Elaine Ngamu, Jeremy Tumoana, Tracey Cannon, Debra Lampshire, Martin Burke, Rob Tua, Jason Haitana, Daniel Exeter, Thomas White, and Shelley Turner.