New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate has released a list of recommendations in his latest State of the Child report including that the government end the practice of putting young people in solitary confinement and stop housing youth accused of crimes with those convicted of crimes.
Norm Bossé is also opposing the using handcuffs and leg irons on youth and tells us about interviewing a young girl who was about 14 or 15.
“5 foot 4, 98 pounds, put in leg irons and handcuffed and shackled like that into the back of a sherriff’s van for about a two and a half hour drive to Miramichi. What are we teaching them? That cannot be good psychologically for anybody” says Bossé.
“I asked her, how did you feel? She said ‘it made me feel like an animal, it was the most degrading thing that ever happened to me.’”
Putting young people in jail should be a last resort and reserved for the most serious of crimes, says Bossé who says that is spelled out in the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He tells us the approach that is being used and that they are encouraging in New Brunswick is to treat the youth as much as possible in the community.
“The regular stuff that kids get into these days, youth get into, can be handled in the community and should be handled in the community with some support system,” says the child and youth advocate.
“Many of these youth that we find have mental health problems, they may have addiction problems, and sending them up to Miramichi is not the solution.”
Miramichi is where the New Brunswick Youth Centre is located.
Another one of the recommendations by Bossé is that the government should formally respond to all of the recommendations made in the child and youth advocate’s More Care Less Court report. You can read his latest State of the Child report here.
