Duty Solicitor Scheme

Our results provide an undeniable [unclear: ca] for the immediate introduction of a fully comprehensive, nation-wide duty solicitor scheme The claim has been made by the previous Minister of Justice and by the permanent Secretary for Justice. Mr E.A. Missen, that a duty solicitor scheme covering every court in the country would he too expensive to operate. However, there can he doubt that holding about 33% more people in prison than need be there is vastly more expensive, both economically and socially. The cost to the community of an increase in number of people with a deep grudge again its system of justice is frightening.

The Magistrate of Nelson, Mr J.W.P. Watts, S.M., has been quoted as slating, in reference to legal representation in court, that "He had yet to find that counsel for a defendant had much to add to a probation officer's report"⁷. Fortunately for defendants in Nelson, Mr Watts' own judgements in the past year do not support his statement. The effect of representation on sentencing in Mr Watt's own court in 1972 is quite clear. Further statistical analysis of the data indicates that legal representation halved the likelihood of any defendant being sentenced to imprisonment. We believe that this would be true of any other court in New Zealand and call on the Government to institute such a nation-wide scheme without delay.

It would be naive to assume that simply by providing lawyers for defendants in the courts discriminatory practices against Maori offenders will cease. Racist attitudes on the part of those administering justice will not vanish immediately, and will still ensure that the non-pakeha defendant is at a disadvantage in the police stations, court and prisons. The judicial system will continue to he a racist system until such time as all members of the community participate equally in its planning, its administration and its benefits. The inequalities will persist until such time as this and all other pakeha-dominated institutions in New Zealand are demolished and a new society, created jointly by and serving the needs of all ethnic groups in the community, is achieved.