This newsletter is developed through a collaborative effort of all Youth Justice staff, Service Providers and Justice partners in the Interior Region.

All involved in the Newsletter would like to thank everyone for their contributions to Name the Newsletter Contest.

In jurisdictions throughout the world, most notably Australia and New Zealand, Restorative Justice approaches have been used in the formal Youth justice system for some time. In Canada, Nova Scotia and the City of Calgary have had Restorative Justice as an alternative to the more retributive court processes for several years. In BC Restorative Justice Programs (Community Accountability Programs) that deal with low risk minor offenders through police referrals have been in existence since 1998.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act, implemented in 2003, included an option for the court to consider the use of a conference. In BC the decision was made to look at existing successful programs in existence. The Calgary model was one such program that was looked and adapted for use in BC.

In 2003 in anticipation of the YCJA the Interior Region hired two Conferencing specialists whose primary role is, when a court orders a Restorative conference on a young offender, to:

• Assess the appropriateness of the RJ conference - this includes assessing willingness of both Victim and offender to participate.
• Prepare all parties for the conference.
• Facilitate the conference.
• Prepare a report for the Court.

Although the referrals from the court in the Interior Region were initially sporadic, Dean Cristofli and Tracy Kovacs, the Conferencing specialist based in Kelowna and Kamloops respectively, have seen a dramatic increase in referrals over the past several months. " Now that we have had some successful high profile cases go through the RJ process, Courts are becoming more open to referring cases for this process" states Dean. He goes on to say that those who participate in the process are amazed at how powerful the process can be. Victims who participate in an RJ conference often feel closure, and feel that for the first time throughout their ordeal have had a chance to speak to how the crime has impacted them. Tracy adds Victims also feel they play an active role in determining the most appropriate consequence for the youth, while gaining a better understanding of the issues facing youth.

The MCFD Youth Justice program is not intended for your first time low risk offender, as are the Community Accountability Programs (police based), which many communities in BC have. Rather the referrals that are most appropriate from the court are quite often the most complicated and sometimes the more serious. Some examples of cases that were successful referrals from the court include:

• Post sentence Aggravated assault
• Pre- sentence Drive by shooting
• B&E with over $10,000 damage
• Assaults
• Assaults with a weapon

The Ministry's Restorative Youth justice conferencing program is still very much in development. Our region, in particular Kelowna, has seen the greatest response in the whole province. As more judges, crown, defence counsel, victims groups and the community at large understand the potential outcomes from these conferences we expect the program to receive more referrals from the courts.

Following lunch, graciously provided by our hosts, we attended youth court. Seated in the front row we were somewhat shocked when 18 youth were brought in, all in handcuffs and shackled to each other. Only when their own case was called were they unlocked from the other inmates. Coincidentally, while we were in attendance a run away female from Kelowna was sentenced to 20 days further custody after serving 6 days on remand. She was arrested at the border with a small amount of Methamphetimine. Strangely, to us at least, the crown seems to play a marginal role in court with Bruce Moran usually replying for "The State". Mr. Moran usually informed the Judge of the States' position for remand, release, or sentencing. The Justice System in Washington is currently taking a very "hard-line" approach with youth and jail is common for what we would consider relatively minor offences. Many of the staff we spoke with were envious of our (B.C.'s) alternatives to custody as they clearly recognize that jail is not meeting the needs of non violent youth. The Truancy court demonstrates an indication of this current approach. Schools have the ability to apply to the court for an order to compel youth to attend school. Once the order is made, the youth can be arrested and dealt with in court for missing school.

Submitted by Einar Poulsen,

The Adventure. Phil is taking a years leave of absence to travel to Southeast Asia . His sense of adventure forged in Golden has never left him. Phil is excited about this opportunity and appreciates the support he has received in being able to embark on this adventure with his family. He and his wife, Jen, the children, Logan and Jasmine, hope to combine travel with working opportunities, to learn more about another culture and to gain an experience that will impact their lives forever. Phil promises to keep us posted on his great adventure and look for updates in upcoming editions of the JAM.

Bill's first memory of Probation services in BC was attending the last province wide PO conference in Vernon in the summer of '74 and offers "every PO traveled in their personal Government issued car!! "

One of Bill's early accomplishments was, conducting an extensive survey of the Squamish/Whistler area and then being asked to establish and run a new office in Squamish. In 1977 Bill was the Local Director for the Vancouver West End office. Bill fondly remembers the interesting mix of clients (Transsexuals, sex trade workers , and bi-polar sufferers) and the equally interesting group of POs. Bill returned to Squamish to be the Local Director, and then to run for local office where he was alderman for 4 years.

Bill was active in the Squamish community as a Volunteer fire-fighter, and President of the Squamish Fire -Fighters Association. In 1984 Bill left BC and returned to his homeland for personal reasons. For the next 7 years Bill worked in a variety of probation and parole officer roles Including the Whiltshire Probation Service, Manager of the Rehab Probation Centre in the city of Salisbury, Hampshire Probation Service and the experimental Probation Centre in Basingstoke. The latter being a pilot project that lead to legislation requiring every county to have probation centres working extended hours to accommodate the employed and unemployed.

In 1991 Bill again headed across the Atlantic and returned to BC where after being a contractor with the Provincial Emergency Programme returned to his probation roots working in Nanaimo and Courtenay. Since returning Bill remarried and had another son in 1995.

For the past 9 years Bill has been the Probation Officer at Lakeview Custody Centre. With the decision to close Lakeview, the Island's loss is our gain. Bill feels he has been very lucky that his misfortune of being "displaced" has landed him with such a great team.

Bill an accomplished and active Jazz drummer hopes to remain in Vernon for the remainder of his career. When he finally does call it quits he hopes to devote his time to music and hopes to "play the world in the sun and use my life's experience to help as many people as I can". We are very fortunate that someone with Bill's wealth of experience and knowledge has chosen our region.

 Welcome Bill.

The people in WJS make the services happen. We believe the cornerstone of effective services is commitment to, and support for, the on-the-ground personnel in our organization, and we are committed to supporting our people through training, support, supervision and monitoring. Below is a description of programs WJS operates under contract for the Ministry of Children and Family Development, in the Thompson/Okanagan/Kootenay region.

Intensive Support and Supervision Program (ISSP), Penticton and Cranbrook, B.C. since 2001 - WJS provides programming for high-risk male and female young offenders in the South Okanagan and East Kootenay regions. The focus of the service is providing support to youth within the community. This may include getting into school, finding jobs, accessing alcohol and drug counselling and/or forensic counselling, youth advocacy and family mediation. Youth are referred by either the court or by probation officers and the intervention is dependent upon the needs of the youth.

 The Creative Community Service Programs in Kelowna and Cranbrook. BC, since 1994 and 1992 - The CSO Programs facilitate and support youth in the completion of court assigned community service hours. Placements are found and maintained and referrals are matched to suitable placements. Work parties are conducted within the community to provide opportunities for referrals who cannot complete their hours elsewhere and to support the enhancement of the community. This program will be transitioning into the Ministry for Children and Families to be provided by Youth Probation Officers. WJS thanks the many staff that provided valuable community work service programs over the years.

As you are likely aware, the decision to relocate the Interior Regional YFPS Clinic was made several years ago; thus, the regional clinic in Kelowna opened in May of 2001. The original Kamloops Regional Clinic was opened in 1990, and continues to serve as the sub-regional clinic for the Thompson and Southern Cariboo regions. The Kamloops Clinic is under the able leadership of Susan Morris-McEwan, as Clinic Co-ordinator.

YFPS has remained a provincial program of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, under the care of ADM Alan Markwart. As a provincial agency, we are divided into four regions - the Island, Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley, North and Interior. Within each region, there is a regional clinic, and in most regions, there are area clinics as well. In addition, in less populated areas, YFPS has available professionals under contract who provide our services in those communities.

In the Interior Region, there have been some changes to those contracted services in response to the decrease in youth offender numbers provincially, as well as the closure of High Valley Custody Centre.

YFPS services are delivered on a sub-regional basis with Kamloops Clinic covering the Thompson and South Cariboo, as well as a travelling service to Salmon Arm. In the Okanagan, services are delivered primarily via the Regional Clinic in Kelowna. We have established an active travelling service to Vernon, with clinical services provided by Kelowna Clinic staff. In the South Okanagan, we provide services in conjunction with our contracted service provider, Penticton Counselling Services. Given this arrangement, comprehensive assessment and treatment services are provided via a multidisciplinary team approach utilizing Penticton Counselling Services and Kelowna Clinic staff.

In the Kootenays, the three contracted service providers - Whitewater Youth Services, The Branch and Crawford Counselling have been working together as a team to provide an integrated multidisciplinary assessment and treatment program for the area. Despite the large geographical area and relatively low numbers of youth referred to our service in the past few years, we continue to

strive to provide quality service integrating our contracted team with consultation and support from the Regional Clinic.

A substantial part of our clinical service is devoted to providing multidisciplinary assessment services to Youth Court under Section 34 of the YCJA. Under Section 34, Youth Court may order an assessment and report to address a variety of issues, and we are seeing an increasing number of orders addressing the issue of continuation of custody (bail). When youth are remanded for an Inpatient Assessment, they undergo a psychiatric/psychological evaluation at IAU in Burnaby, and the psychosocial assessment (formerly titled social history) is completed by a psychiatric social worker or nurse in the area clinic, or contracted service provider. This allows for a more comprehensive assessment that takes into consideration the youths' psychiatric and psychological functioning, as well as social factors in their home community. This also includes assessing the youths' family home environment, education/vocation, response to previous supervision/ interventions, peer involvement, and protective and risk factors. Following the completion of the evaluation, the assessment team then conferences the case and generates a set of recommendations for Youth Court addressing risk, rehabilitation and recidivism. If probation officers are completing a PSR and wish to be apprised of our recommendations, they may contact any member of the assessment team who will be able to provide you this information verbally prior to court.

With Outpatient Assessments, the same assessment process occurs. While in some of our smaller communities, psychiatric assessments may not be immediately available. Psychological and psychosocial assessments are always completed. When the assessment team believes that a psychiatric assessment is required, a psychiatrist can be accessed through the regional or area clinics.

Summary reports of the assessments are available to Youth Probation staff upon their written request. When requesting, please advise us that; a) the matter has been concluded in Youth Court; and, b) there is no order to withhold all or part of the report. Also please specify which reports you wish the summary and recommendations of - the primary (psychological/psychiatric), or the psychosocial or both.

It is our belief that sound intervention begins with a thorough assessment. As a result, any youth who has not had a recent assessment within our service, and who has been referred to us post disposition will be subjected to a thorough evaluation. Probation officers can expect to receive a copy of the Summary Report of that assessment.

YFPS is currently preparing for Accreditation. YFPS has an Accreditation Committee in the Interior Region, which has been consulted in the development of service delivery standards. As a result, we have developed a service delivery process, which involves; 1) assessment; 2) debriefing and discussion of the assessment with the youth, their family/guardian, and the Probation Officer; and,

3) the formulation of a service plan. If that service plan includes a need for treatment services from YFPS, it will be provided.

Why do we follow the above model? Knowing that we "can't do treatment to a client", our efforts will be directed at doing the best job possible in engaging the client and his/her family. The goal is to reduce risk factors that contribute to their likelihood of re-offending, and to build on strengths that serve as protective factors from re-offending.

We continue to provide specialized treatment programs for youth who have committed sexual offences, and for youth who have committed violent offences and/or have a serious and persistent pattern of violent behaviour. These specialized programs are available at the Kelowna and Kamloops Clinics where there are a sufficient number of youth requiring those services. Services are also provided to areas where a significant need is identified. For example, over the past fall and winter, two clinicians from the Kelowna Clinic travelled to Vernon to provide sexual offence treatment services to a group of youth from Vernon and Salmon Arm.

Boundaries is a four-bed intensive youth residential attendance treatment program working with youth ages 12-19, who have been convicted of a sexual offence. The residential program has been developed based on a supported treatment foster care model, and is integrated with the treatment services provided by the Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services clinics for the youth involved in the program. Boundaries is operated through a partnership between ARC Programs in Kelowna, and Thompson Community Services in Kamloops; and is directly funded by MCFD Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services. The residential component includes four single bed treatment homes {two in Kelowna and two in Kamloops}, to serve youth who require supportive placements while participating in treatment services. The program employs two full time Youth Justice Counsellors {one in Kelowna and one in Kamloops}, to work with the youth in each community. This model allows for intensive, individualized support to each youth, in implementing treatment plans and related activities in the community. There is also a non-residential component to the program, providing the capacity to support youth in the two communities that do not require a residential placement to participate in treatment.

The eligibility criteria for the program include: the youth must be on probation for a sexual offence and an order to complete the Youth Residential Attendance Program; and, there must be an assessment of the youth indicating the need for primary treatment. Pam MacDonald, Youth Probation Officer in Kamloops, coordinates the referral process. Pam can be contacted to send out a referral package, and once completed, she receives the completed forms and other required documentation. The Screening Committee includes representatives from Youth Probation, Youth Forensics and the Boundaries Program, and screening meetings are held on a regular basis (the next screening meeting date is July 28, 2004). Referrals to the non-residential component of the program are made directly by the Youth Forensic teams in the two communities.

Overall the program is operating well, and we are working out the bugs as we go along. The first youth to complete the residential program in Kamloops is scheduled to for transition on August 1, and the two youth placed in Kelowna are looking at September or October as transition dates. Youth Probation and Youth Forensics staff have been a huge support to the implementation of the program, providing training to staff and caregivers, advice on program development and evaluation, and anything else they could do to help. We thank all those individuals that provided this support and look forward to continuing the collaborative working relationship.

RCMP Ride Along Program - Kelowna

Probation Officers who have been actively involved in this program describe it as a great success. They cite the improvement in relations with the RCMP as the primary benefit however, also describe the educational aspect for both RCMP and the Probation Team as a positive step in improving service delivery. The success and positive experience with this program has even prompted one Probation Officer to look into becoming an auxiliary police officer.

This project evolved out of alarm at the increased incidence of young women engaging in the precursor activities to sexual exploitation. These young women for the most part were known to professional services in the community. They were, however, not connecting with those services, but rather, were connecting with peers. Well-intentioned peers were often making the situation worse. The thinking behind the project reasoned that if vulnerable young women were not going to engage with the professional services in the community, but were engaging with the "natural helpers" then lets train the "natural helpers" to provide appropriate help and support those helpers the best way we could.

And so, this project of Peer Mentors Supported by Adult Mentors was born.

The peer mentor is conceived as a young person, 16 to 24 years, whom tend to have some natural helping skills. These skills are enhanced with training around specific issues such as suicide intervention, and so on. While it is not necessary that the peer mentor have street experience, it is necessary that they have street credibility.

The adult mentor is conceived as a person with some skills whom is available to the peer mentor to provide consultation and guidance. There are also to act as a credible liaison with services, which may respond to the peer mentor as readily.

Some of the topics addressed in training for both peer and adult mentors include: Reasons Kids are on the street, sexual exploitation, cycle of violence, suicide cpr, first aid expectations, substance misuse, resources, reportable circumstances and communication skills.

Youth Justice Projects

Dear Nervis,

Yes Probation officers are Peace officers. Youth Justice Act of BC Section 24(3) designates Youth Probation Officers as Peace Officers for the purpose of carrying out their duties as Probation Officers. They typically should not utilise this designation to arrest, however, they do, as Peace Officers have the obligation and duty to enforce court orders.

Dear Curious,

Thank you. We are glad you enjoy our modest publication. Einar is a relatively common Scandinavian name, which in Norse means "number one" Einar, our editor, is actually of Danish heritage.

Dear Frustrated,

The Youth Criminal Justice Act like its predecessor the YOA attempts to protect the identity of Young offenders and the information relating to their Youth Court History. For each type of report the YCJA is prescriptive as to who shall receive a copy. Probation Officers, are bound by this legislation. In many circumstances some of the information may be disclosed, however this is assessed on a case by case basis and within the limitations of the YCJA. We suggest that you discuss this with the supervising Probation Officer, who then can assess the appropriateness of any disclosure of reports or the information they contain.