Number of youth at N.W.T. young offender facility drops to record low

The average number of youth in custodyat the North Slave Young Offender Facility in Yellowknife has dropped dramatically over the last 10 years, to three in 2015 from 19 in 2005.

Director of Corrections Robert Riches saidthe drop is due to implementation of the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act.

"Legislation changed over the years," Riches said.

"I think it's a change for the better. We are keeping young people out of jail. We are relying on community interventions, and community programmingand diversion to deal with criminality of young people."

The Youth Criminal Justice Act replaced the Young Offenders Act in April 2003.

The $11-millionNorth Slave Young Offender Facility, which has a capacity of 25, received its first young offenders less than three months earlier. The number of youth housed at the facility has almost steadily dropped since 2005.

Fewer charges

The Youth Criminal Justice Act requiredpolice officers to considerextrajudicial measures before deciding to charge a young person.

Lydia Bardak,a community justice co-ordinator with the John Howard Society, said she has seen fewer and fewer youth on the court docket in Yellowknife.

"Police don't always have to lay a charge," Bardak said.

"They can just have a stern talking to the individual. They can talk to parents. They can issue a warning or caution letter, or they can refer to community justice."

According to the Northwest Territories Bureau of Statistics, the number of youth charged in the territory droppedto 189 in 2014from 627 in 2003. The drop included dramatic declines in the number of charges related to property crime, uttering threats, and non-sexual assault.

Bardaksays sendingfeweryouths tojail curtails crime.

"When you are young and you go into custody you are no longer afraid of going in," Bardaksaid.

"People who go in more than twice when they are young are very likely to graduate into the adult system."

Last week the territorial government announcedit wouldmergestaff at the North Slave Young Offender Facility with the adult jail to save money.

In 2011, N.W.T.closed Arctic Tern, its otheryoung offender facility in Inuvik. The facility for young female offenders, which opened in 2002,had averaged fewerthan one young offender in custody in the year before its closing.