Justice In Sleepers

In Canada when a young person gets in trouble with the law, the punishment given will be in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The Youth Criminal Justice Act was created in 2003. The main objective of this legislation is to hold youth accountable for their actions through the promotion of “rehabilitation” and “reintegration” (Youth Criminal Justice Act, 2002, S.3a(ii)). Within the Canadian court system, there is a youth court for individuals who get in trouble with the law while they are still under the age of 18 years. In Calgary, Alberta the youth courtrooms are located in the Calgary Courts Center building, which is located at 601 5th Street SW. I attended youth court on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 and Monday, October 31th. This paper will shed light on the atmosphere of the youth courtroom, analyze how the criminal justice professionals are acting within the courtroom, and discuss certain cases that went through the youth courts.

Youth and juvenile crime is a common and serious issue in current society, and people, especially parents and educators, are pretty worried about the trend of this problem. According to Bala and Roberts, around 17% of criminals were youths, compared to 8% of Canadian population ranging between 12 to 18 years of age between 2003 and 2004 (2006, p37). As a big federal country, Canada has taken a series of actions since 1908. So far, there are three justice acts in the history of Canadian juvenile justice system, the 1908 Juvenile Delinquents Act, the 1982 Young Offenders Act, and the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act. In Canada, the judicial system and the principle of these laws have been debated for a long time. This paper will discuss how

When a young person breaks the law in Canada, they are dealt with differently than adults, for they lack the level of maturity and development. The federal law that governs Canada’s youth justice system is Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). The act was created in 2003 with a purpose to hold youth (12-17) accountable through sanctions that contribute to the protection of the public. The basic principles of this act are crime prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration, protection of the public and youth, meaningful consequences, and accountability. Hence, it is fair and equitable, as well as effective for youth to a great extent, with preventing crime while ensuring the accountability of a young offender. The data from Statistics Canada show that youth crime has decreased 42% since 2000. This essay focuses on how the justice system effectively ensures the protection of society, the innocent, and ensures that those who break the law, face appropriate consequences.

The twenty-first century poses as an evolutionary revolution for young offenders. Barry Levinson’s Oscar nominated film Sleepers discloses many of the frailties previously encompassed within the youth justice system, shedding insight on the lack of legislative review. Although four young first-time offenders known as Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan, John Reilly, and Lorenzo Carcaterra are sentenced within the retributive justice system for crimes of mischief and theft, the Wilkinson’s Detention Center further victimizes these youth creating a deeper path of violence. In contrast to zero-tolerance policies enforced within the film, the establishment of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003 provides a structural framework that enhances

The Juvenile Court authorities must weigh the interests of public security with the needs of wayward youth when making determinations in regards to the most suitable program(s) and the level of circumscription necessitated. There have been thousands of juvenile programs which have been developed and undergone comprehensive recidivism analysis by outside auditors over the past thirty years. Objectives require balance in selecting correctional options that meet individual offender needs to contribute to crime reduction and prevent recidivism. Incarceration is necessary to incapacitate violent offenders; however, there are better alternatives for non-violent offenders who are not career criminals. Programs of incarceration for low offense juvenile

However, the community was not integrated into the process, and the court case solely concentrated on the four boys. In the retributive past offenses committed are put into consideration, and in the movie Sleepers, they considered the fact that the four boys run businesses for the gang mafia. In a restorative justice system, the loss the boys had undergone in the past, that might have led them in to acting the way they did, would have been considered. The boys stole the hot dog wagon in order to take it to the gang mafia.

Byran Hogeveen argues that the Canadian youth justice system is centered around ‘vengeance as justice’ concept. Vengeance is an act of taking the law into one’s hand and gives a punishment for a person who had done something wrong. It does not care if the result of punishment will in turn, change a person’s behavior. The aim of vengeance is to make the punished person suffer as his victim did. But how is vengeance related to Canadian youth justice system? The youth justice system promotes a tougher punishment and prioritized public safety, rather than youth’s need (Kramer, 2011). It solves the youth’s problem by sending youth to detention facility rather than looks at the real issue behind youth’s problem. As mentioned by Hogeveen, it is injustice in the justice system.

Entry #1: Maynard, Robyn. "Incarcerating youth as justice? An in-depth examination of youth, incarceration, and restorative justice." Canadian Dimension Sept.-Oct. 2011: 25+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Instead of going to court, and waiting weeks, even months for a court date, young offenders go to the program, which gives them the opportunity to make up for what they did and take responsibility for their actions. It also provides them with the chance to face the community and the people affected by their crime, and realize the impact their actions had on other people. Ariel, while in a fight with her Mother, shattered a window and was charged with vandalism. Police, instead of taking her into custody, recommended her to a program called Restoring Justice in Rural Communities. The community worker negotiated a restorative plan in which she and her Mother could actually talk to each other and work things out, giving both of them the chance the hear the other side of the story. They were scheduled time during the week to spend one-on-one time with each other,so they can strengthen their relationship and put an end to the fighting. Restoring Justice in Rural Communities leaves youth without a criminal record and gives teenagers the opportunity to see how their actions affected other people, something they would've never experienced in

"The Youth Criminal Justice Act is a piece of Canadian legislation...that determines the way in which youths are prosecuted under Canada's criminal justice system." The act was implemented April 1, 2003, after "7 years, 3 drafts, and more than 160 amendments." The clearly stated purpose of the Youth Criminal Justice Act is "protection of the public through crime prevention, rehabilitation, and meaningful consequences (s.3(1)(a)(I-iii))." For a better understanding on whether the courts were following the Youth Criminal Justice Act's principles in practice, I went to Edmonton Law Courts and sat in on youth court. After reviewing the act in theory and practice, I argue that the Youth Criminal Justice Act is doing a fair job in fulfilling

Currently to deal with juvenile offenders involved in the youth crime, there are two options available. The first option that prevails to a larger extent is known to us as incarceration while the second option that is slowly gaining trends is known to us as rehabilitation programs. This paper focuses on thorough analysis of both these options and the impact that they have on the offenders as well as the society as a whole. The paper also assesses the viability of these options in order to determine which of these will prove to be more effective and beneficial.

Upon my research I found out that there are many justices related programs from a restorative or community framework that are being offered and available to people all ages, from 0 to 4 and even 55+, races and genders. In order to determine what program I want to look deeper into and examine, I turned to the Office of Justice Programs website which lists over 400 programs available. The website points out what programs work and where tested and those that where deemed as failed researches and programs, more specifically 90 effective programs, 272 as promising, and 81 as no effect. One particular program that I was interested in and is listed as one of the effective programs and applies to my set of principles is Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP) or another name they use is Michigan State University Adolescent Project (MSUAP) which was founded and is practiced at Michigan State University. The set of principles that I found Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP) program relevant to are: restorative justice should not be mandated in a top-down authoritarian process, no single road map or blueprint for every individual involved, all persons involved must be prepared to make mistakes, assistance provided should help people involved in the long run, crime involves disruptions in a three dimensional relationship of victim, community, and offender, the primary goals should be to repair the harm, heal the victim and the community, and rehabilitate offenders.

This proposal focuses on the issue of youth incarceration and how restorative justice methods can be substituted for incarceration to yield better and more effective results. Restorative justice holds the belief that “criminal punishments are more effective when they cause the offender to make amends with their victims as well as their communities. By using a phenomenological approach the study seeks to discover the essence of experiences of multiple individuals who have experienced restorative justice approaches. Data will be collected through the use of face-to-face interviews, focus groups, as well as transcripts from restorative justice circles. The study will be approached from a critical theory lens and thus it aims to create change to flawed societal systems. This information is a key component to increasing the likelihood of success for juvenile criminals and it will also assist tax payers by saving their money rather.

The Youth in Criminal Justice Act often gets a bad rap for not being hard enough on its young offenders. There is a divide between those who would like to see these youth rehabilitated, and those who like to see them punished with lengthy prison sentences. The following case of R. v. G.-E.(A.), is a prime example of how difficult it can be to chose the most appropriate sentence for a youth offender with the Youth in Criminal Justice Act in Canada. The following case had two critical issues; should Mr.G’s crime be deemed a serious violence offence (SVO)? , and should he have been tried as an adult? In addition to a critical analysis of the aforementioned issues, this research paper will give a brief description of the case, sentencing and requests by the Crown/Defense Counsel, relevant laws (and their limitations) and alternative sentencing options. Lastly, this paper aims to shed light on all the factors that go into making a final sentence for a youth offenders.

To ascertain whether practitioners attribute the desistance of young people from offending behaviour to the effective practice of targeted youth programs. Young offender’s recidivism has been said to be the consequence of ridiculous control programs attracting reduced compliance from young offenders according to (Kempen and Young 2014). Practitioners competences has been put under scrutiny with critiques such as (Andrews, Donald and James 2010) and (Petrosino et all 2010), alleging that they sometimes deviate from their professional requisites. Much of the criticism was specifically for the private practitioners rendering inconsistent treatment regime, lacking commitment to the recommended practice. Thus, this evident knowledge gap has failed young offenders to satisfy the targeted programs aims of desisting from antisocial behaviours and other criminal activities (Woods et al