NEW YOUTH JUSTICE ACT LEADS TO FEWER INCARCERATIONS

There has been a dramatic plunge in the number of teens serving time
in detention centres as a result of a new focus on rehabilitation
rather than punishment for the country's young people in trouble with
the law.

There was a 44-per-cent decrease in 2003-04, the first year that the
Youth Criminal Justice Act replaced the old Young Offenders Act,
Statistics Canada reported yesterday.

The new act, which took effect three years ago this week, instructs
police to lay fewer charges and judges to impose incarceration as a
last resort for all but the most serious young offenders.

As a result, the number of offenders age 12-17 who were sentenced to
youth detention centres plummeted to 4,651 in 2003-04 from 8,356 a
year earlier. The number sentenced to serve time in less secure
facilities, such as group homes, dropped to 2,168 from 4,021.

The majority of custodial sentences were handed out to 16- and
17-year-olds and half of the terms were for less than six months.

Justice Minister Vic Toews, who favours a tougher approach to youth
crime, said the new Conservative government intends to push ahead with
changes to the new law.

"Simply because few people are being incarcerated does not mean that
the system is working," he said yesterday on Parliament Hill.

While the current law requires judges to take rehabilitation and
reintegration into account when imposing sentences, the Conservatives,
in their election platform, say denunciation and deterrence should be
guiding principles.

The former Liberal government said it scrapped the Young Offenders Act
because young people were being jailed at one of the highest rates in
the western world.