VI. Conclusion
CAEFS supports federal-provincial cooperative and collaborative work in
this are. Cost-sharing for the advancement of relevant health/treatment
services are recommended. It is our view that the youth justice system must
not remain the catch-all for other systemic inadequacies. Young people are
best served by supportive and proactive interventions, as opposed to the
punitive and reactive types of approaches characterized by and endemic to
criminal justice responses, such as the ones presented in Bill C-37.
CAEFS supports the broadest interpretations of crime prevention within the
context of socio-economic, gender, racial and ethno-cultural realities.
There is sufficient evidence that preventative approaches to addressing
crime are far more cost-effective than current criminal justice approaches.
Accordingly, CAEFS supports the enhancement and development of high quality
supportive services and assistance for children, youth and adults alike
-- from universal and enriched health, child care and educational opportunities
to effective gender, anti-poverty and anti-racism and conflict resolution
programs.
Within the criminal justice system more specifically, CAEFS reiterates that
we believe much more emphasis needs to be placed upon the creation of community-based
alternatives for young people. At the very least, resource allocations to
custody and community need to be flipped, one to the other. Additionally,
a refocus on the front-end of the process would be useful. Such an orientation
would entail increased use of alternative measures programs, reduced caseloads
and more holistic probationary practices, vocational and educational foci,
as well as increased emphasis on moral, cognitive and personal development
generally. Furthermore, all such approaches would require the integration
of gender-based and culturally-specific foci.
Providing supportive and empowering services to young people at the time
of their first contact with the youth justice system generally reduces the
likelihood of future "criminal" involvement. A caveat, of course,
is that if such services are present only in the youth justice system, it
is likely that more youth will be caught in ever wider, deeper and stickier
nets of social control and more young people and youthful behaviour will
be criminalized. Accordingly, CAEFS reiterates the need to emphasize the
development of preventative and proactive approaches within the child welfare,
educational, medical and mental health systems as well as the youth justice
systems.
In order to ensure significant short as well as long term change, proactive
education and training programs is required for judges, lawyers, probation
officers, police officers and all other youth justice personnel. The reorientation
of those who work with or are otherwise involved with young people is a
prerequisite component to the development of positive and effective change
within the youth justice and all other youth-serving systems. In addition
to more traditional training approaches, CAEFS encourages the involvement
of young people themselves, as well as front line workers in the development
of professional and practical training programs as well as in the development
of the services and programs, and therefore the "systems" designed
to address the needs of youth.
CAEFS: 10/94
YOA Recommendations
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