Youth Incarceration Essay

1543 Words7 Pages
Jail is not effective in changing the values of youth offenders or aiding the youth; it never has been and never will be. Addressing this, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) was implemented in 2003 to keep more youth out of jail, following reports that Canada had the highest rate of youth incarceration in the western world. The act instead aims to rehabilitate and reintegrate youth who break the law, through various extrajudicial measures. Since the YCJA, incarceration rates of youth have gone down by 60%; however, the overall effectiveness of the YCJA is currently being debated. The YCJA should not be amended by Bill C-10, to be tougher on youth offenders because jail doesn’t work, to incarcerate youth because it is costly, and because the YCJA’s founding principles would deteriorate if Bill C-10 were to be passed. Jail does not work and never has. The Youth Criminal Justice Act was implemented to replace the Young Offenders Act to keep youth out of jail but is now being amended to put more youth in jail. This concept is flawed because, to reiterate, jail does not work. What works is providing services for mentally ill patients, rehabilitating prisoners, and reintegrating newly released prisoners into society. According to the Winnipeg Sun, a study was done on a group of youth in 2006 who were incarcerated and released into society without any rehabilitation and reintegration and, “100% of young offenders released from youth custody were charged with another offence within two years.” Jail is simply ineffective in changing youth offenders’ values. Putting youth who have come from one poor living condition into another poor living condition is not the way to change them or help them. The vast majorities of youth offenders come from unstable school systems, have family problems such as domestic abuse, have drug and alcohol problems or have parents with drug and
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