The government has declared a one-year pardon for prisoners under the age of 30, if they're serving sentences of up to eight years.

The amnesty was declared to mark World Youth Day, which Lisbon will host next month.

Citing the pope's impending visit, Catholic organisations have been pushing for a general amnesty for young prisoners since April.

The amnesty

Besides reducing sentences for some prisoners, young convicts serving sentences of less than one year will be released.

Those who were not sentenced to jail, but have been fined under 1,000 euros will be pardoned entirely.

The Portuguese government justified its decision, saying Francis's "life and pontificate have been heavily marked by appeals to social rehabilitation of those who are at odds with penal law."

The amnesty will not apply to all young people however.

They won't qualify if they've been found guilty of violent or serious crimes.

Portugal lists these as homicide, infanticide, domestic violence, battery, kidnapping, forced marriage, money laundering, sexual abuse, and incitement to hatred or violence.

The Pope's visit

Francis will be with the young pilgrims from 2 to 6 August.

Portugal is expecting over a million young visitors to take part in the 1-6 August international event.

It will culminate in an all-night vigil and final mass with the Pope on 5-6 August.

Nearly ready

The WYD Foundation, which the Patriarchate of Lisbon created, is overseeing the event organisation.

The Foundation says everything will be ready on time. It also says Vatican envoys are impressed with how things are progressing.

The only concern involves families volunteering to host pilgrims. There just haven't been enough so far.

Just weeks before the first groups arrive in Lisbon and surrounding cities, only around 20,000 people have familes to host them - well below the 100,000 target.

While many families are expected to volunteer closer to the date, organisers have been forced to find alternatives, asking public schools to receive pilgrims as well.

Both the Government and local city councils have been working with the Church to ensure the event is a success.

Souce

• The Tablet

The report, released at the Nga Hau E Wha National marae on Wednesday, looked at how those aged between 10 and 16 are faring when they fall foul of the law.

Part of an annual project, the National Youth Custody Index, the report uses the Official Information Act to compile a snapshot of how well the justice system is doing in dealing with young people.

The research relies on responses from government departments and the police to Official Information Act requests.

It has been carried out for the past four years and most organisations have been forthcoming with the requested information.

The report found the number of children charged in court increased by 6 percent last year, compared to the year before.

While the number of young European people in court was down 1 percent, there has been a 9 percent rise for Maori over the 12 months.

The students also have uncovered the practice of keeping youth in police cells, and the disproportionate number of Maori youth before the courts.

Becroft, who attended the launch of the report, has described the state of youth detention in New Zealand "a crisis".

"The formalised option of remand to an adult police cell, which will always be kept separate and in solitary confinement, sometimes with the light on for 24 hours, poor sanitation - that option is simply unacceptable."

Also of particular concern to St Thomas College students was the rising number of Maori teenagers passing through the courts.

"It's been rising over the last 10 years, and it keeps rising. Last year it rose nine per cent, and now it's sitting at about 64 per cent," St Thomas student Te Aotahi Rice-Edwards said.

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Challenge staff discussed with English the services they provide to youth and how they could help if the age at which people are referred to the adult court was raised to 18.

The founder of Challenge 2000, Kitty McKinley said putting 17-year-olds through the adult courts and into prison was like putting them into a "training school on how to be a better criminal".

"We know what works; we have seen the damaging effects of 17-year-olds going through the adult court system."

The director of Challenge, Steve O'Connor said English was there to listen...and he did that.

O'Connor said it was a great opportunity to share their views and have a good general discussion.

"I think people don't understand the reality of the youth justice system and that leads to knee-jerk reactions."

English said he learned a lot from the visit, and also heard a number of issues that had been raised before. "It shows the kind of expert range of support [in New Zealand] for young people."

Though English was non committal about his personal view of raising the youth justice age to 18, he said it was something the Government would continue to discuss.

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