Sian Elias - The Blameless Babes Speech

The Blameless Babes Speech

In July 2009 Elias caused controversy with her Blameless Babes speech to the Wellington District Law Society. The lecture was given in honour of noted criminal defence lawyer, Shirley Smith, who argued that " a prison at the bottom of the cliff is not a solution. Criminals will just go on falling into it, at great cost to the community. We have to find out why blameless babes become criminals."

In her speech, Elias expressed concern about prison overcrowding and argued against what she described as the "punitive and knee-jerk" attitude of politicians towards the criminal justice system. She said prison overcrowding had to be managed to prevent "significant safety and human rights issues". She also said several other changes were needed in the criminal justice system including increased education and understanding by the community that, since "criminal justice processes are largely irrelevant to crime reduction", we need to address the causes not just the effects of crime. She said New Zealand needed greater focus on early intervention for youth and vulnerable families, improved mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, greater use of community-based sentences, and a fundamental rethink in the way the probation service monitors offenders.

As a final point, Elias said that unless New Zealand takes action to address the underlying causes of crime, Government may be forced into the position of using executive amnesties to reduce the growing number of prisoners. The chief justice's comments were widely reported in the media and led to a public rebuke from Simon Power, the Minister of Justice, who said: "The Chief Justice's speech does not represent Government policy in any way, shape or form".