Sentencing circles may offer changes for young offenders

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Sentencing circles could alleviate some of the estrangement Native youth feel from the mainstream justice system, says a member of a federal group gathering input for a revised Young Offenders Act.

"We have to begin looking at (alternatives to jail) that fit culturally," says Joan Pennell. "One youth I spoke to had been put in open custody (by the circle) rather than serving a jail term. He was able to stay in his own community and really felt that someone cared for once.

"He'd been put in an Aboriginal (justice) program with the sweats, etc."

Funded federally through the National Crime Prevention Council, her group is travelling throughout six provinces to find out how the circles operate and to evaluate the alternative sentences being handed down to repeat offenders that appear before them.

The Council's Youth Justice Committee, which she chairs, will report to parliament this fall on alternatives to custody for youth. The courts don't normally make alternative measures available to repeat offenders.

So far the Act makes no reference to the fledgling circles but Pennell says her group's recommendations could affect how the circles operate in future.

Society must look at alternative methods of justice, especially for the second-time offenders who end up in jail for minor offences, she says.

"One good example is the (Native) guy who was in jail for borrowing his aunt's bicycle for six months."

Edmonton's Native Youth Justice Committee is on the right track, she told them during her meeting with them in early June.

"It seemed like a terrific program and I was really impressed with the Elders. We want to learn from it and highlight it as an example of how alternatives (to jail) can work.

"We need to re-look at the Young Offenders Act. When we brought it in it was meant to use alternative measures to custody but it's not been implemented that way," says Pennell.

"Given that many young people are in custody for nonviolent crimes, we're raising the question of whether this is the most effective way to spend public money."

A member of the Edmonton group backed up that opinion with statistics showing of the 21 sentenced by the circle since last year, the percentage who re-offended hadn't gone up.

According to Pennell, each young offender in custody costs the tax-payer $80,000 a year for a total of $380 million. She's concerned with statistics that show while over half of those are Native, only six per cent become involved in alternative measures.

According to the council, young people are more likely to be charged with minor offenses and to receive longer sentences than adult offenders. Studies show 60 per cent of all charges laid against youth were property related compared with only 37 per cent for adult.

The Edmonton sentencing circle sees itself as providing a type of extended family to those youth who face them, which is they key to their success, says chair Theresa Richards. They young offenders open up to the circle because they know the information stays confidential.