FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 2, 2005
McGuinty government slashes youth custody beds
The McGuinty government is closing a quarter of the open custody beds for young offenders across the province.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is concerned that with fewer beds, the judiciary will be forced to make a stark choice between sentencing youth to jail or sending them home.
“Young people often get in trouble with the law as a direct result of a lack of guidance and support in the home. Yet, the province is expecting caregivers who have already failed these kids to provide responsible supervision,” says OPSEU President Leah Casselman. “When do judges throw up their hands and start tossing
these kids into secure custody, given the lack of options?”
While alternative day programs work for first-time offenders, experience in other jurisdictions has shown that repeat offenders are more likely to continue to reoffend under day program sentences.
Further, almost a quarter of all youth in secure custody are brought there for breaches of bail and probation – something less likely to occur under an open custody program.
“We haven’t had a reasonable assessment of whether day programs are working as an alternative to detention and custody,” says Casselman. “To close a substantial number of these facilities while judges are still grappling with appropriate sentencing is irresponsible. Justice is supposed to be blind, not directed by
budget expediencies.”
OPSEU is urging the Minister of Children and Youth Services to adapt the existing facilities to accommodate the new sentencing alternatives instead of closing them down.
“Rather than layoff your most experienced staff to rehire and retrain a new set of community-based staff, why not simply expand the model that already exists at such facilities as Hamilton’s Dawn Patrol, where residency and community programs are administered from the same agency?” asks Suresh Paul, OPSEU Sector Chair
for Correctional Services.
OPSEU represents more than 1000 workers at youth custody agencies around the province, of which six are either being closed or reduced in size: Onesimus House (Prince Edward County), Durhamdale (Pickering), Dawn Patrol (Hamilton), Salvation Army Wycliffe Booth House (London), Ni Gee Nam Youth Residence (Cochrane) and
Juvenile Detention – Niagara (Fonthill).
For more information contact Rick Janson at 416-443-8888 ext 8207
