On October 26th, I mentioned how in the court sessions I went to I only saw one white male be asked who his behavior had affected and how it had affected himself. After today's long session, I thought I would see a similar question be asked to other young offenders. However this was not the case. I do want to make it clear, that this is only an observation. It does not mean that there is a clear biased of race, nor careless judges in the courtroom. An observation can just as easily be a coincidence. The reason I bothered to mention this is because I thought that was a good thing to be asking the youth. It gives them a voice and a chance to think about what they did. As well as shows them that there is someone that cares about them. The judge cares to know about the cause of the behavior and what it means.
Although I did not see a judge asking a young offender these sorts of questions, I did see an interesting case. I witnessed a small bickering argument between the judge and the lawyer. This was all over one individual who was in EYOC and therefore listening from the room on CCTV. She was a 17-year-old who plead guilty to robbery and failure to appear in court. The part about this case that was unusual was that the young teenage girl had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Just like all the other youths I have seen, she received similar terms of probation. She had to reimburse the 95 dollars she had stolen, had a 9 month probation period (right up until her 18th birthday) she was to have no contact with the others' involved, 50 hours community service, keep the peace, appear before the youth court when asked, assigned a probation officer, etc. However arguments arose when the crown and the judge suggested she get counseling as part of her probation. The duty council mentioned how the young girl had no previous record, and said it was a big deal that she was a 17 year old with FAS and to not have been in the juvenile system yet. The crown and the judge argued that robbery was a serious offense and she needs some sort of counseling. The defender strongly disagreed with this sentence because she has FAS; called her 'brain damaged' and the reason for her actions was being in the wrong situation at the wrong time. She was peer pressured and because of her FAS she was easily led and influenced. The defender argued that counseling would not have been beneficial to the youth and would not work because she is incapable of proper conversation and relation with others. If they had assigned counseling/help as part of her probation, it would just be setting her up to fail because a breach charge would occur. The probation officer would not understand her situation and just assume she did not complete all of the requirements of her probation. All the meanwhile, this poor girl is in a box, in a youth detention center listening to people argue about her 'brain damage'. It was a really sad moment for me to witness because she was not given a voice and was just listening to people talk about her and a disease she had no control over.
This particular case showed me that the youth court may be a bit lenient and really do want the youth to do well and get themselves out of the system, but they still have a lot to learn. As Erin and I talked about, the youth court may be good at giving the right amount of community service hours or other requirements based on the individual, they can still be pretty standardized probation requirements. The terms of probation for all the youth I witnessed all contained: keeping the peace, appear before the youth court when asked to, assigned a probation officer, live somewhere approved by the probation officer, a certain number of community service hours, some form of counseling (ie. anger management) and a certain time period of probation. Those last few are assigned based on the individual. However, when it comes to the case of other individuals that differ from the standard, the youth court seems to have difficulty deviating from the standard way of handling cases. The duty council made convincing arguments about the young girl having no previous record, having FAS and pointing out assigning counseling as part of her probation would just be setting her up to fail. The judge had difficulty seeing this point of view because counseling is usually a part of the probation period. It may be hard to allow a youth to ‘get away’ with not doing this part of the process. Unfortunately, the lawyer had a point about this particular youth and it seemed unfair for her to be treated like those without a form of brain damage.
It was a long morning in Rm. 444 yet an eventful one. It was great to talk to Erin and get a little insight into the Youth Court System as well as to see an FAS youth be treated similar to the rest of the youth. That is all from your YCR!! Happy Halloween!!
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