Pilot project aims to help youth in care avoid jail

Federal-provincial pilot project aims to keep youth in children's aid from ending up in jail.

Thestar.com
Oct. 28, 2015
By Laurie Monsebraaten

Ottawa and Queen’s Park are launching a pilot project aimed at reducing the high rate of youth in Ontario’s child welfare system who end up in jail.

Although there are no Canadian or Ontario statistics, a recent Star investigation of serious occurrence reports in Toronto group homes found that 39 per cent of cases resulted in calls to police. Of those, one quarter of youth ended up being arrested.

“The Star’s series of articles had a huge impact in terms of government support,” said Ryerson University professor Judy Finlay, co-chair of the Cross-Over Youth Project. “But also it’s just another provocation that we need to move forward. We found it very, very helpful.”

The $1.36 million, five-year pilot being announced Wednesday, is the result of a partnership between Finlay and Justice Brian Scully of the Ontario Court of Justice.

The Cross-Over Youth Project, formed in October 2013, brought together representatives from nine sectors involved in youth criminal justice to better understand what is happening and why.

The sectors include judges, Justices of the Peace, Crown attorneys, defence counsel, probation services, children’s aid, group homes, police and the Office of the Children’s Lawyer. Youth were also consulted.

Toronto is one of four sites where the pilot will be launched. Others include Thunder Bay, Belleville and Chatham, where representatives from the various sectors will work together on a youth-by-youth basis to develop both an individual and system-wide response to improve outcomes for these youth. A fifth community will be chosen once results become known in the four initial cities, Finlay said.

A youth advisory committee for each area will provide input and feedback.

Ontario’s Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin Elman said young people are too often caught “between silos” in the child welfare and youth justice systems.

“When young people in care are in front of a youth court judge there is a huge moment of opportunity for them to change the course of their lives,” he said. “We need systems to listen to them and work together to help every young person achieve to their full potential.”

About $1.2 million of the money is coming from Ottawa’s Youth Justice Fund, while Ontario’s children and youth services ministry is spending about $150,000.

“I am very pleased that the Cross-Over Youth Project is so well aligned with our commitment to providing at-risk youth the right supports and opportunities they need to make positive choices and reach their full potential,” Children and Youth Minister Tracy McCharles said in a statement.

The Star’s group home investigation found that police are involved in four out of every 10 serious occurrence incidents and are automatically called whenever youth go missing. Some homes are quicker to call police than others.

For kids on probation, missing a court-imposed curfew and ignoring house rules can lead to arrest, more charges and a date in court. The result is more involvement with a youth justice system that can follow young people into adulthood if they get into more criminal trouble, the Star investigation found.

The results show a disturbing tendency - particularly in group homes - to turn outbursts from kids usually suffering from trauma and mental health issues into matters for police.

They raise concerns about caregivers being too quick to call police, feeding what studies suggest is a pipeline that funnels youth in care into the justice system.

The link between youth in care and the criminal justice system has been studied in the U.S. but largely ignored in Canada except for British Columbia which released a report in 2009.

The B.C. study found that over a 10 year period, 41 per cent of youths in care faced charges by police and 35 per cent ended up in court - rates many times higher than those for youths not in care.