Juvenile justice review 1996

Abstract

This review follows the 1995 review, the first in this journal, and similarly reviews the period until 30 September 1996. In the year presently under review the principle focus of juvenile justice concern was yet again the matter of pre-trial detention of arrested juveniles. The question as to where juveniles should be held pending finalization of criminal trials was the subject-matter of legislative reform in May 1996, when the Correctional Services Amendment Act 14 of 1996 was promulgated with immediate effect. The genesis and intended purport of this amendment is described in J Sloth Nielsen 'Pre-trial detention of children revisited: amending section 29 of the Correctional Services Act' (1996) 9 SACJ60. The content of the legislation allowing selected children to be incarcerated pending criminal trial will therefore not be raised again, but new practical and textual problems that have arisen with the implementation of the new section since May 1996 will be discussed.