Youth Criminal Justice Act Essay

“Justice doesn’t mean that the bad guy goes to jail, it just means that someone pays for the crime,” (Freedom Writers, 2007). The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) is in place to ensure that youth who commit crimes are charged with a suitable punishment due to the offense. But are these youth getting away too easily or is the YCJA giving reasonable consequences to those who deserve it? The YCJA is not harsh enough on youth offenders because the government is being too lenient, rehabilitation centers are not working as well as they are meant to and youth who commit crimes go back to committing them again.

“Ultimately, the Youth Criminal Justice Act is too lenient in regards to serious youth crime.” (The Cord, 2011) In most cases youth who commit crimes are given the punishment of community service, but is that punishment enough? Many say that youth are
Unfortunately though, Canadian rehabilitation centers are not of high enough standards. In 2011, close to sixty percent of youth who had committed violent crimes re-offended in less than two years. (The Cord, 2011) That means that the rehabilitation centers are not doing their job of helping the youth go down a new, better, stronger path in life, yet the courts still prefer to send youth to these centers instead of juvenile detention. This makes it easier for a youth to re-commit a crime and it makes it harder for Canadians to feel safe in their own communities. The existing programs are not doing their job at changing youth’s mindsets, which is why we need to change how we are looking at the problem. To really, truly change the youth’s attitude it will take more than one or two sessions a week, which is why we need to implement longer, harsher and more effective jail sentences. By doing this, the youth will feel responsible for what they have done, learned from their actions and will thereby be less likely to