– It is great that a majority in the Storting has now seen that something must be done. It must be done quickly and it must be done in the right way. And then you have to do something different from what you have done in the past, says district court judge Åsa Bech. She judges daily in juvenile cases. In courtroom 328 in the Oslo courthouse, she borrows a judge’s robe from a colleague to look suitably stern. After a tug of war in the Storting, where among other things SV was a driving force, the district court is now getting its way. – In this courtroom there is only room for two rows of defendants, and there are often more than two defendants in these youth cases, says Bech. More serious violence Reports of concern about more serious youth crime have caused unrest. In the autumn, the government put forward a bill that would ensure that the young people faced quicker and clearer reactions. The Oslo district court criticized the proposal. They thought it would have little effect because the changes from the current arrangement were too small. The conflict council and correctional services were still to determine the punishment in most cases. They should still also be responsible for infringement cases, i.e. what happens when the young people do not comply with the punishment they have been given. The district court’s own proposal was a fast-track court for young people, where the police and courts are given more authority. – What is the goal of such a fast-track court? – Fast reactions that work, says Bech. In the vast majority of cases, there will not be talk of using prison, but measures such as residence bans and breathalyzer tests. – Why do you think it is so important that the reaction should come from a judge in a black robe? – There is something about the seriousness of entering the courtroom. Most people understand that now it’s not that kind of cozy talk anymore. It will have consequences for the rest of your life if you don’t sharpen up now, says Bech. Central to the proposal is: The Court determines some of the terms of the sentence that apply immediately. Today, the terms are drawn up by the conflict council in dialogue with the convicted, usually several months after the judgment has been handed down. The prosecution, i.e. the police, is given the authority to take breaches of the terms of the sentence to the court. Today this rarely happens. Our own judges who specialize in juvenile cases. Bech believes they can cut the time from crime to punishment down to a few weeks. Today, it usually takes at least half a year. – The young person must be informed by the judge about what is applicable. So that he knows and his comrades know that he is now carrying out a punitive action in freedom. And if he does something wrong then, the police can catch it and ask the court to toughen the punishment. And we should be able to achieve that within two days, says Bech. SV pushed SV has been a promoter of fast-track youth courts based on the Oslo district court’s model. The party also set aside money for it in its alternative budget. At the same time, the Conservative Party, FRP and Liberal Party gathered behind a proposal for such a court. Altogether, the four parties would have had a majority. In the end, the governing parties chose to also go before the Oslo district court’s fast-track court. Formally by ordering an investigation from the own government. SV and a joint justice committee stand behind this request. Hadia Tajik (Ap) Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB – What the Oslo district court has requested will now be sent to the ministry and they will come back with their proposals related to it. And to a large extent, the intention in those proposals will be taken care of, says Hadia Tajik (Ap). SV’s justice policy spokesperson Andreas Sjalg Unneland believes that SV has now contributed to putting in place better measures against youth crime. Andreas Sjalg Unneland (SV) Photo: Javad M.Parsa / NT – What the justice committee now orders is: These changes to the law must take place, and we must have proposals back to the Storting during the spring of 2024. We believe this will make the criminal sanctions against young people who commit serious crime. We believe it is important because punishment is a fresh commodity, says Sjalg Unneland. Conservative Party: – Panik The Conservative Party, FRP and Liberal Party were all ready to adopt a fast-track court now. They believe that Ap and Sp require an investigation to cover up the fact that they could be overrun in the Storting. – They now come to the last turn and panic a bit, says justice policy spokesperson Sveinung Stensland. He believes the additional investigation will delay the start of a fast-track court by at least another year. The Liberal Party also believes that the proposal has been sufficiently investigated. Not least because the proposal comes from the court itself. Ingvild Torsvik (V), Per-Willy Amundsen (Frp) and Sveinung Stensland (H) believe that the fast-track court should be adopted before Christmas. Photo: William Jobling / news – We are very critical that this fast track is not adopted now, says justice policy spokesperson Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik. FRP believes the governing parties will investigate in order not to lose face. – I simply believe it is about the need to safeguard an image of a government that is tougher on child, youth and gang crime, says leader of the justice committee Per-Willy Amundsen. The Labor Party’s and Hadia Tajik believe it would have been frivolous to adopt a juvenile court without going through the Ministry of Justice. – Adopting legislative changes directly across the table in the Storting is something you almost never do. It borders on irresponsible, says Tajik. news has asked for a comment from Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp). We have not received that. The District Court believes that in the summer Oslo District Court does not believe that the extra round of investigations need lead to postponements. – We can have it in place by the summer. I am quite sure that we can achieve that, says district court judge Åsa Bech. She relies on the fact that the Ministry of Justice and the working group working on fast-tracking have received a clear message from the Storting, even if the necessary legislative changes are not yet in place. The message from Hadia Tajik (Ap) to the ministry is quite clear: – It goes without saying that the working group working on fast track in the juvenile court can take into account the changes that have now been signalled. Because that is what the majority in the Storting wants, says Tajik. —————————————— UNTIL LATER Offenders under the age of 18 are defined as children under criminal law. Prison is only used when they have committed very serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder and in some cases rape. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that prison should only be used as a last resort when all other options have been tried and then for the shortest possible time. In 2007, the Stoltenberg government set up a committee to investigate alternative punishments for young offenders. In 2014, the punishment was clear. It was named youth punishment for the most serious offenses and youth follow-up for the slightly less serious ones. It was the then Minister of Justice Anders Anundsen from the FRP who introduced the youth sentence with effect from 1 July 2014. He then stated that: – Prison sentences do not help these young people, and are not used unless absolutely necessary. The responsibility for designing and implementing punishment was transferred from the court and the correctional service to the Conflict Council, which refers to itself as: A state service that offers mediation as a method for handling conflicts. In practice, this works so that the court only sentences a person to a youth sentence, while the content of the sentence is determined by a youth coordinator in consultation with the young person. The content of the punishment is limited by the measures the individual municipality offers. The children’s ombudsman has been strongly critical of the fact that the content is varied and thin. A core part of the new youth sentence was a restorative meeting where the perpetrator had a conversation with the victim. Experiences with these meetings have been mixed. Nordlandsforskning followed several cases and young people closely on behalf of the Ministry of Justice from 2015. Already in the title of the first report: The “map” matches the “terrain”, the researchers revealed that they were concerned about the findings. The researchers found that the restorative meetings between perpetrator and victim often did not work as intended. It could be a burden for the victim to meet the perpetrator. The researchers also believed that there were a little too many people present at the meetings. Already in the summer of 2017, Nordlandsforskning recommended: faster start of follow-up after offenses and better safeguarding of restorative principles. Erna Solberg’s government was still unable to implement significant changes in the new form of punishment until she stepped down just over four years later in 2021. But last autumn she was clear that she was clear in her speech: To news she said: – It is a challenge when young people have committed so many offenses before they get a reaction that they actually laugh a bit at the police and at our entire justice system. Now the Conservative Party is following up by topping the bill the government presented at the end of September: On 29 September, the government presented a bill which will ensure that young offenders are met with a reaction much faster than today. While official statistics show a decrease in juvenile crime, several people close to the youth environment report that the violence has become more serious and more frequent. Threats of reprisals also mean that many are believed not to report relationships.
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– Now it’s not cozy talk anymore – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
