OT-OIA-2026-0068
23 February 2026
Hayden
[FYI request #33296 email]
Tēnā koe Hayden
Thank you for your email, which was transferred in part from the Ministry of Justice on
26 January 2026, to Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki)
requesting information on youth crime and prevention. Your request has been
considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The following parts of your request were transferred to Oranga Tamariki for
response:
•
9.1 Youth Crime
o
Please provide:
Youth justice facility population trends
Projections of future youth justice demand
•
9.3 Prevention Investment
o
Please provide:
Cost comparison: youth justice intervention versus early
childhood support
Whether investing in child poverty reduction would reduce long-
term youth justice costs
International examples of countries that reduced youth crime
through social investment
In response to part 9.1 of your request, please find attached as Appendix One a
spreadsheet containing a breakdown of Youth Justice population information,
including data broken down by residence, ethnicity, age, and gender at the end of
each month from January 2017 to December 2025. Please note that Oranga
Tamariki was established in our current form in 2017.
Information on population trend analysis for Youth Justice custody can also be found
on the Oranga Tamariki website
here. Please note that the information on this page,
which was published on 24 October 2024, provided forecasting of custody numbers
up to June 2025. No projections of future youth justice demand exist in the format you
have requested and, as such, this part of your request is refused under section 18(e),
on the grounds that the document alleged to contain the information requested does
not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
IN-CONFIDENCE
While Oranga Tamariki does not have projections for 'future youth justice demand', we
are a contributing agency to the Government's Target 3 - reducing serious and
persistent child and young offending by 15%. This measure is reported on quarterly,
with the most recent data available on the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
websit
e here. This target is on track, with a reduction of 19% as of September 2025.
In response to part 9.3 of your request, relevant information, including a Cost Benefit
Analysis, is publicly available on the Oranga Tamariki website in relation to the
Reducing Youth Reoffending in South Auckland Social Bond Pilot. This was a six-year
pilot from 2017 to 2023 exploring the impact of investing in various social interventions,
including youth recidivism prevention. This can be fo
und here.
With regards to the part of your request asking whether investing in child poverty
reduction would reduce long-term youth justice costs, responding to this part of your
request would constitute the creation of information in the form of formulating an
opinion, which is not afforded for under the Act.
Finally, with regards to your request for international examples, no materials of this
kind are held by Oranga Tamariki beyond the references in the documents relating to
the Social Bond Pilot (linked above). As such, this part of your request is refused under
section 18(g)(i) of the Act, on the grounds that the information requested is not held
by Oranga Tamariki, and we do not believe it to be held by another department.
Oranga Tamariki may make the information contained in this letter available to the
public by publishing this on our website with your personal details removed.
I trust you find this information useful. Should you have any concerns with this
response, I would encourage you to raise them with Oranga Tamariki. Alternatively,
you are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the
Ombudsman. Information about this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or by contacting them on 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Dean Winter
Deputy Chief Executive
Youth Justice Services and Residential Care
Document Outline
