The number of young offenders has dropped in B.C., report says

A new report has found a dramatic decrease in youth offenders in the province.

According to Jennifer Charlesworth, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, the ratio of staff-to-youth in custody is almost 11-to-one.

Charlesworth says the numbers highlight a golden opportunity for government to better reallocate justice-related resources to the people who need them.

“I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting a cut in funding and services to children and youth, absolutely not,” she said.

Charlesworth says, rather than recommending cuts, the data supports a need to create of new set guidelines to redistribute resources.

“So what is called for here is a redeployment of excess capacity in the youth justice system to other areas that are desperately wanting, and there’s no shortage of those,” she says. “The next question becomes, how might that be done? That is how should surplus resources be reallocated.”

Charlesworth says items worth reconsidering include the pending closure this year of the Youth Custody Centre in Prince George, which would force young offenders in the northern part of the province to be placed far from their communities.

With files from The Canadian Press.