Conferencing and the Youth Criminal Justice Act - PDF

							                Conferencing and the Youth Criminal Justice Act
                                    Marilou Reeve

Conferences

In many parts of Canada, there has been an increasing use of conferences to assist in making
decisions regarding young persons who are involved in the youth justice system. In general,
"conference" refers to various types of processes in which affected or interested parties come
together to provide advice to decision makers in specific youth justice cases. Conferences
were not referred to or authorized in the Young Offenders Act, but are an explicit part of the
youth criminal justice system as envisioned by the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
A conference may be a restorative justice mechanism that provides advice to the decision-
maker on ways of repairing the harm done to the victim. Many restorative justice principles
are consistent with the principles found in Section 3 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.


Operation and Purpose of Conferences

Conferences generally operate in an informal manner. They can take the form of family
group conferences, community accountability panels, sentencing circles and inter-agency
case conferences. Conferences provide an opportunity for a wider range of perspectives on a
case, more creative solutions, better coordination of services, and increased involvement of
the victim and other community members in the youth criminal justice system.

Youth Justice Committees

Youth justice committees are also defined in the YCJA, where one of their functions is
specifically to act as a conference

Conferences

• Uses for Conferences
• Participants in Conferences
• Times When a Conference May Be Appropriate

New Provisions for Conferences

The YCJA explicitly provides new provisions for conferences. The Act defines a conference
as “a group of persons who are convened to give information in accordance with section 19”
of the YCJA. Section 19, in turn, provides stipulations on who may call conferences, and the
purposes and rules for conferences.

Who May Call a Conference
A conference can be convened by a youth justice court judge, the provincial director, a police
officer, a justice of the peace, a prosecutor or a youth worker for the purpose of making a
decision under the Act (ss. 19(1)).
Purpose of a Conference

Conferences may be convened, among other things, to give advice on appropriate
extrajudicial measures, conditions for judicial interim release, sentences, including the
review of sentences, and reintegration plans (ss. 19(2)).

Rules Governing Conferences

With respect to conferences other than those convened by judges or justices of the peace,
jurisdictions can establish rules for convening and conducting conferences. If such rules are
established by a jurisdiction, conferences to which the rules apply must be convened and
conducted accordingly (ss. 19(3)). Where jurisdictions do not establish rules, then the uses
and range of conferences could be extremely broad, provided that the principles of the YCJA
are complied with.

Uses for Conferences
The range of uses for conferences under the legislation is extremely broad, as is the range of
formats that a conference can take. A conference may be composed of a variety of people
depending on the situation. They may include the parents of the young person, the victim,
others who are familiar with the young person, community agencies or professionals with a
particular expertise that is needed for a decision.

A conference may be a restorative justice mechanism that provides advice to the decision-
maker on ways of repairing the harm done to the victim. It may also be a professional case
conference in which professionals provide advice respecting decisions on how rehabilitation
may best be achieved and how services in the community can be co-ordinated to assist the
young person.

Conferences provide an opportunity to increase community involvement in the youth
criminal justice system and to develop innovative, community-based responses at various
stages in the youth justice process. The conferencing provisions in the YCJA seek to
encourage the involvement of appropriate agencies, the young person’s family and the
community itself to support finding measures of accountability for wrongdoing that are
meaningful to the young person and to promote pro-social behaviour. The aim of the
conferencing provisions is to provide the decision-maker with informed advice as to a course
of action.

Offending behaviour may result from a variety of factors in a young person’s life. Perhaps
the young person has substance abuse problems, has been abused or neglected, or has
difficulties in school. These and other factors may contribute to offending behaviour and
must be addressed to successfully reintegrate the young person into society in a manner that
will reduce the likelihood of the young person re-offending.
It is clear that the youth criminal justice system alone cannot address the multiple needs of
young persons who offend. Different agencies have the expertise to address the different
needs of the young person. Family members and other people from the community who play
a role in the young person’s life have the ability to guide and support the young person. In
order for a young person’s needs to be properly identified and responded to, the various
participants need to be brought together for a coordinated, co-operative approach to the
problem. The conference provisions in the YCJA encourage this approach and provide
jurisdictions with the ability to create their own frameworks for most types of conferencing.

While conferencing is not mandatory at any stage of the process, it is certainly encouraged
whenever it might be useful to gain a fuller understanding of the reasons underlying the
young person’s behaviour and to provide the decision-maker with advice that might be of
assistance.

Participants in Conferences
The following people might be included in a conference, depending on the goal of the
conference
and the circumstances surrounding the incident:

• facilitator                                 • police officer
• young person                                • teacher
• young person’s lawyer                       • guidance counsellor
• young person’s family (immediate            • other school representative
  or extended)                                • social worker
• peers                                       • mental health worker
• elders                                      • probation officer
• interpreter                                 • provincial director
• victim’s family (immediate or               • addictions counsellor
  extended)                                   • coach or leader (i.e.: of sports or
• victim’s support person                       other activities)
• victim’s lawyer                             • judge or justice
• crown prosecutor                            • youth worker
                                              • anyone else considered appropriate

Times When a Conference May Be Appropriate

The following stages in the youth criminal justice process are examples of when conferences
might be used and what purposes such conferences might serve. The list is not exhaustive, as
conferences may be convened to assist with any decision that has to be made under the
YCJA. Scarcity of resources will also impact on the use of conferences. It is important to
target the use of conferences to situations in which the most benefit might be derived.
Note that the general principles in section 3 of the YCJA, as well as the specific principles
that apply to different parts of the YCJA, must be complied with when convening
conferences at different stages in the process.
• Front-end
• Pre-trial Detention
• Sentencing
• Reintegration

Front-end

Conferencing is a mechanism that can work at the gateway to the youth criminal justice
system to reduce the number of young offenders who are brought into the formal processes
of that system. A police officer who is trying to decide how to respond to an incident of
offending behaviour may get a clearer picture of why the young person offended if certain
people are brought together to discuss the incident and to advise on how accountability could
be achieved outside of the formal justice system. These same people may also play a part in
developing a response to the incident that is appropriate given the young person’s needs and
that avoids initiating formal proceedings. Appropriate agencies, family members and
community members might then assume responsibilities to ensure that the agreed upon
response measure is carried out.

A conference might also be used to assist

• a police officer with a decision to be made under sections 6 or 7 of the YCJA;
• a crown prosecutor considering a caution under section 8 of the YCJA; or
• either official considering the appropriateness of, or compliance with, an extrajudicial
  sanction under section 10 of the YCJA.




In jurisdictions that consider extrajudicial sanctions only after a charge has been laid, the
same kind of conferences as used in pre-charge situations might be useful. A crown
prosecutor could stay the charges pending the outcome of the extrajudicial sanction imposed.
Charges could later be withdrawn or proceeded with based on whether the young person
satisfactorily complied with the measure. The crown may direct a stay at any point after the
charge has been laid and before a finding of guilt has been made.

Pre-trial Detention

A conference might be convened at the pre-trial detention stage to consider and make
recommendations to the court about any of the following issues:

• Appropriate alternatives to detention
• Appropriate conditions for release, as well as suggestions for supervision and monitoring
• Identification of a responsible person
• Placement upon detention
     Sentencing

     If a young person is found guilty of an offence, the court may convene or cause to be
     convened a conference for the purpose of making recommendations on an appropriate
     sentence. Again, such a conference might take a variety of different forms and involve a
     variety of different participants. Conferences in such cases might provide the court with
     guidance as to the appropriateness of one or several sanctions available under the YCJA,
     keeping in mind sentencing principles. The participants in the conference would have the
     opportunity to develop their suggested sentencing
     plan.

     The YCJA (para. 40(2)(c)) provides that the recommendations from such conferences are to
     be included in a pre-sentence report, where one is prepared. Where pre-sentence reports are
     not prepared, the court may receive the recommendations in any manner that it declares,
     including through direct participation of the judge in the conference.

     Reintegration

     The YCJA recognizes in its principles the importance of rehabilitating and reintegrating
     young people back into society. Conferencing can play a key role in this process.

     Conferencing to proactively develop an effective reintegration plan has the potential to
     involve the young person and provide him or her with links to community services that can
     address his or her needs. In such a conference, each of the appropriate agencies can provide
     input to the plan and the role of respective agencies in the reintegration can be clearly
     identified. The young person will stand a much better chance if the effort of various agencies
     is co-ordinated. The need for monitoring the young person’s progress might also be
     addressed through recurring conferences.

This paper is prepared by Youth Justice Policy, Department of Justice Canada. For more
information regarding the Youth Criminal Justice Act please refer to
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/yj/index.html