Protocol will use justice circles for young offenders

Through a new protocol, first-time youth offenders in the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation will be given a second chance and learn to take responsibility for their actions.
 
Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service and Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation signed a protocol that will allow NAPS officers to refer appropriate cases involving child welfare matters and pre-charge diversions to the legal services corporation.
 
A pre-charge diversion would deal with young offenders through a restorative justice circle instead of laying a criminal charge and moving forward through the standard Youth Criminal Justice Act proceedings.
 
“By the time they’ve gone to court and they’ve gone through and they’ve got probation, they don’t’ even remember what they did wrong,” said the acting executive director of the Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation Celina Reitberger.


A restorative justice circle includes the offender and their supporters, the victim and their supports and any other community supports as required.

The young offender would take responsibility for what they’ve done and everyone would work together to find a solution.
 
“In this case, they take responsibility, they look to the victim and find out how their actions have affected others and there is a positive plan that has developed that will hopefully put them on the right path and prevent them repeating this kind of behaviour,” Reitberger said.

NAPS Chief Claude Chum said the new protocol will fill a need regarding young first-time offenders and through the restorative justice program, the person will feel more deeply the impact of their crime.

“They learn a lot more from this; they take responsibility for their actions better than if they were to go through court,” he said.


The program will also lesson the strain on the legal system and free-up resources, said Reitberger.

“Instead of actually going through the paperwork and having an actual charge, they say ‘OK, can this be dealt with in another way?’ so that we don’t’ have to do the paperwork, so we save ourselves some time, but we also are going to move more quickly,” she said.

The teamwork between the two agencies isn’t only for restorative justice but other youth justice and victim-witness initiatives.


Chum and Reitberger said the circles will be used to keep children in their home communities when a crime is committed, instead of being removed from the home and put into foster care.

“I think it’s a very expeditious way to get the family together to solve the problems that have occurred so the children are not taken out of the community, put in a foster home and before you know it, being lost to the community,” said Reitberger.

“What we’re trying to do is empower the family because the family is crucial to the development of the child.”