How a new Winnipeg youth court is doing things differently

Walking into court, this 14 year old had one thing on her mind. She wanted the court to see she was a good person. She was charged with assaulting someone while struggling with alcohol. I met that girl here last month. We can’t identify her, but I can tell you her life’s a lot different. She stopped drinking. She’s ahead in school. And part of that change happened after her case was heard in this new youth court. I got to see how it works. The new courtroom is a sea of jeans and sneakers, Young people accused of crimes but not in custody. The idea is to create a space about twice a month where they can quickly get help instead of waiting for months. That 14 year old girl was here after punching a group homeworker last year. For her, the new process meant getting her case dealt with in one day. Lawyer Hillary Tash runs the new court. We want to let them know that even if they have been in trouble before. They can rehabilitate and they can do better in the future and that no one has given up on them but in the immediate for their specific actions at this time. We have to take it seriously and we have to have a meaningful consequence for our actions. She says many of these teens are so young, they need a guiding hand every step of the way. And you can tell that even from their signatures on court papers, from a cognitive perspective, from a developmental perspective. And so when we see a young persons, you know, little signature that might look like the signature of a four year old. We know that they’re going to need support to get to court. They can’t do that alone. Provincial court Associate Chief Judge Leanne Martin helped create the new courtroom. She noticed so many young people were struggling with mental illness, addiction or trauma. The out of custody youth, if people saw or heard what was going on in their lives and what they were doing, think might add a little bit of understanding as to why some of the youth find themselves in these positions and why they are offending in the way that they do. That’s true for the 14 year old girl I spoke to, but she’s determined to never return. She told me she never forgot someone saying her future was to end up living in a bus shelter. At the time, she didn’t believe it, but it was always in the back of her mind. And as she walked out of court last month with a second chance, she saw a different kind of future for herself. Caitlin Gowerluch, CBC News Winnipeg.