I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to provide input to the proposed changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
I am the executive director of Moncton Youth Residences and have worked for this NGO for almost 25 years now. This is the largest non-profit organization of its kind in New Brunswick, and it employs about 180 staff members who provide 19 different services to at-risk youth and their families from around the province. In addition to that, I have been a foster parent for 20 years and have worked with young people in conflict with the law as well as child welfare youth in the permanent care of the Minister of Social Development.
I think it's encouraging that your committee is looking at the YCJA in trying to make it a more effective piece of legislation. The primary goal of the proposed changes is to better protect society, which sounds compelling and well intended. Who wouldn't want to have a safer community? But is getting more punitive the way to accomplish this positive and widely accepted goal?
What concerns me is that although the proposed changes may give the appearance of creating safer communities, the actual consequences of such changes that have an increased reliance on incarceration may indeed have the reverse effect.
The profile of an at-risk youth is someone who is already marginalized and faces numerous barriers between where they are now and becoming a healthy and contributing member of society. Risk factors include, but certainly aren't limited to, mental health issues, substance abuse, issues of homelessness, family and school breakdowns, conflict with the law, prostitution, and a myriad of relationship problems.
The increased reliance on incarceration being proposed cuts the young person off from all of their community support systems and from any important relationships in their lives. It is my belief that a young person with at least one good relationship in their life has a chance for a future. A more punitive approach will further limit the opportunity for meaningful relationships, and I fear it will be at the direct expense of rehabilitation of these young people.
Jail, punishment, and punitive measures all cloud the issue of rehabilitation. Heavier reliance on incarceration, publishing a young person's identity in the press, and trying them as an adult when they are as young as 14 years old does not suggest to me a safer society. These measures will further disengage youth, isolate them from society even more than they are now, and further aggravate their existing challenges.
Labelling a youth in the newspaper may actually influence that youth to accept that label as a permanent part of his or her future. More frequent and longer jail sentences will further reduce opportunities for success in the young person's life. It will most likely magnify and multiply existing risk factors, and it will not assist with skills acquisition. Treating a young person as an adult in these circumstances will not cause them to be any more mature or responsible or effective in their decision-making.
All youth sentenced to secure custody will one day re-enter society. A more punitive approach will help to guarantee that these youth will be ultimately less invested in society and have even less of a chance of achieving their potential.
Placing more emphasis and financial investment on incarceration will have both social and economic costs that may be difficult for society to bear.
I am not aware of any studies that clearly indicate that a young person will be less likely to reoffend because of receiving more time in jail. However, there are many studies that indicate investment in early intervention and community-based services has the best chance of inspiring youth toward more responsible behaviour. Investment in youth-specific community services and fresh options are the way to get young people connected to the necessary services, skills, people, relevant information, and even their own wants and potentials that will assist them in moving forward and also steer them away from ineffective behaviours that lead to a downward spiral.
Creating more community-based services and a heavy reliance on community-based sentences is what is needed to create safer communities. There are too few of these youth services in New Brunswick, especially in the small rural communities. Investing time, energy, and resources on the front end will obtain better results in the long run. With front-ended investment in community-based services for these at-risk youth, pressure will be taken off addiction services, hospitalization, social assistance, and incarceration. Such investment will enhance rehabilitation and will assist in holding youth accountable for their actions. The earlier the intervention, the better chance of success and the greater savings, both socially and economically.
I'm going to tell you a brief story of something that happened to me with my own teenage foster boys last weekend. We had a plugged toilet, which I tried to fix. That didn't work very well. The problem quickly grew into a flood and working with a plumber for the rest of the evening.
The plumber's conclusion was that we had a problem with our main sewer line running from the house to the septic tank. It had collapsed and I was going to have to dig up the yard. So I said, “I'll do that, and you can come back when I have things dug up.”
I then went to my foster children and said, “I could use a hand with this. Would anybody be interested?” They all replied, “Yes, we'd be happy to participate.” So the next Saturday morning we went out there and worked for about three or four hours. I can tell you that after that time they were smiling from ear to ear. I couldn't have created a greater opportunity for happiness or self-satisfaction if I had taken them to the circus for the day. Why was that? I think it was because they gained a sense of making a contribution to resolving a collective and immediate problem. They could see progress because of their efforts. They learned about teamwork and effective communication, and they had a strong sense of achievement.
You need to do esteemable things in order to build self-esteem. I believe increased emphasis on punishment will starve this growth, and emphasis on community-based options and services are the best way to promote this growth. As President Roosevelt once said, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
In conclusion, I want to make a couple of brief points on Bill C-4, which I certainly support. First, I agree with the provision prohibiting the imprisonment of young persons in an adult correctional facility. I was actually surprised that this didn't already exist.
With some hesitation I mention the second point. Clause 25 of Bill C-4 requires that police keep a record of extrajudicial measures taken to deal with a young person. I think that maintaining a written record of this information would be more useful than not when it comes to decision-making purposes later on.
I have one final almost miscellaneous comment based on some discussions I had with one of our youth court judges and a crown prosecutor. It pertains to young people who are continuously breaching their probation and breaching undertakings to a judge. In those circumstances, in some instances, the intervention of a short, sharp shock of incarceration has proven to be beneficial in the past for some young people.
I hope the committee will give some consideration to my comments, so as to maintain that important balance between protecting society and supporting at-risk youth.
Thanks very much.