Canada/Russia Juvie Hall
Sara Falconer
The Conservative government's omnibus crime bill, with its harsh new mandatory sentences and "tough on crime" rhetoric, has been passed by Senate, which may come as a surprise to some of our Russian comrades.Since 2004, Canada's juvenile justice system has been used as a model to reform the Russian system through the Youth at Risk (YAR) project. What are the most appealing aspects to Russia's legislators? Our notions of rehabilitation and probation. Because the concept did not even exist, they had to coin a new word for it: "probacia."
"Juvenile prisoners were placed in the same penal colonies as adult prisoners," says Piotr Dutkiewicz, professor of political science at Carleton University. "They were in fact getting exposure to the best practices of crime by their peers. It was not because the Russians did not understand the problems, but because they did not have the funds to separate them."
The $3.5-million project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and managed by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), which first launched similar pilot projects in Latvia and Lithuania.
Dutkiewicz, who is also director of the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton and an editor of the fledgling Russian journal Juvenile Justice, has helped make connections overseas.
"They are fed up with foreigners who are coming to Russia and telling them what to do at the macro level, and how to behave democratically," he explains. "But
this work at the regional level allows us to build real partnerships."The issue of at-risk youth in the Russian Federation extends beyond mere crime control. The AUCC estimates that over 800,000 of the country's children are homeless, and of 73,500 violent crimes against children in 2005, 3,000 resulted in death. As a result of these dire conditions, over one million juvenile offenders appear in court each year.
A comprehensive approach, stemming from the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2003, aims to work with the community and with juveniles in schools, in prisons and after they are released.
"Community-based programs are way more effective than those that take place in institutions," says David Taylor, a retired probation services manager from Ottawa and one of YAR's advisors.
Ontario's programs, using needs/risk assessment and a cognitive behavioural method, have also proven to be much less expensive than incarceration. There has been a drastic reduction in the custody of juveniles since the act was introduced. "Eighty-five to 90 per cent of the kids who appear in court end up with a community disposition," Taylor adds.
These ideas have been implemented in six regions of the Russian Federation, starting with the country's first juvenile court. "This was actually a breakthrough in Russia," Dutkiewicz says. "One of the judges visited Canada and she saw firsthand how it worked." Russian lawmakers will visit the DARE (Development Through Adventure, Responsibility and Education) wilderness camp near North Bay in April.
CIDA commitments in Afghanistan and Africa mean that budget cuts are on the horizon, but Dutkiewicz hopes to keep building momentum in Russia. Currently, YAR is applying for another two years of funding so that they can apply the regional model they have developed at a national level.
Even with few resources, Taylor has found that Russian community service workers are dedicated to making positive change. "What they can do with so little astounds me."
Seriously, I thought they were still sending people to Siberia. Was that just cartoons? In any event, we should just do that here. Our population is getting younger and there may be no need to send the old folks out on the ice flows as Rick Mercer tells our American neighbors. We could just put the young offenders out there instead.
|
|
Donnie Garrow
|
|
|
|
