While the Ministry of Justice worries about AI and deepfakes in courtrooms, a different problem has quietly doubled: adults being sentenced in Youth Court.

In 2024, New Zealand's Youth Court sentenced 1,467 adults. That's not a typo. These aren't teenagers. They're people aged 18 and over who committed offences as minors but weren't sentenced until adulthood. (Source: Ministry of Justice, youth-court-orders)

Five years ago, before COVID, that number was 694. We've gone from sentencing roughly two adults per day in Youth Court to four per day. That's a 111% increase since 2019.

Here's what that means: over a thousand New Zealanders every year are stuck in a justice system backlog so severe they age out of being a youth before their case is resolved. They committed their offence at 16 or 17. By the time they stand for sentencing, they're legally adults.

The trajectory tells the story of a system that broke during COVID and never recovered. In 2020, adult sentences in Youth Court hit 1,476. They dropped to 942 in 2021 as courts cleared backlogs, then climbed back to 1,530 in 2022 and peaked at 1,599 in 2023. Last year's 1,467 is barely a decline. it's still more than double the pre-pandemic baseline.

This isn't about crime rates. Youth offending has been falling in most categories. This is about processing speed. Every one of these 1,467 cases represents a young person whose life was put on hold while they waited for the justice system to catch up.

Think about what happens in that gap. A 16-year-old offends. Months pass. Then a year. They turn 17. They turn 18. Maybe they get a job. Maybe they start trying to move on. Then they're called back to Youth Court as an adult to answer for something they did when they were still a kid.

The Ministry of Justice is considering mobile courthouses to improve access. That might help. But the problem isn't just geography. It's capacity. It's delay. It's a system sentencing twice as many adults in Youth Court as it did five years ago, and nobody's talking about it.

While politicians debate four-year parliamentary terms, young offenders are waiting longer than that for resolution. The courts aren't keeping up. And the number that proves it just keeps climbing.