Yellowknife (July 12/06) - Spending time in custody doesn't always deter youth from getting into trouble with the law, said a 17-year-old Yellowknife girl.

After spending months in a youth facility for assault and breaching her probation, the girl, who can't be named, was back in court recently.

In her opinion, when it comes to dealing with youth justice, it's better if youth "don't have to go to jail."

Alternatives to incarcerating youth are the spirit of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the legislation which replaced the Young Offenders Act in 2003.

And according to a study commissioned Justice Canada, that's what is happening across Canada, including the NWT.

The study, titled "The Use of Custody Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act" shows that since the act came into effect, fewer youth cases are being taken to court. There are also fewer guilty verdicts which result in jail time.

Andrew Doob, co-author of the study and professor of criminology at the University of Toronto, said the courts are now under obligation to find alternatives to jail-time.

Data collected from before 1999 could not be used in the survey because it would skew the results for the NWT and Nunavut regions, he said.

The new act came about in response to claims the Young Offenders Act was too vague in providing guidelines for sentencing.

Canada also had the highest rate of youth incarceration in the western world, stated Justice Canada on its website.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act's first principal states: "The objectives of the youth justice system are to prevent crime; rehabilitate and reintegrate young persons into society..."

Special provisions to seek alternatives to incarcerating aboriginal youth are included in the act.

When the new act came into effect, there were 118 fewer youth found guilty per year and 80 less youth put into custody.

Overall in Canada, the percentage of cases per 1,000 brought before the court under the new act dropped by 17.7 per cent.

The percentage of cases with guilty verdicts dropped by 16.3 per cent while 33 per cent fewer youth per 1,000 were incarcerated under the new law, according to the study.

Doob said the reason for the large decline is because there are fewer cases in court because of the act's focus on restorative justice for youth.

Restorative justice uses alternatives to custody and can be anything to community service hours, counselling or facing the victim(s) of the crime.

The onset of new legislation meant all offenders were given a clean slate to be treated fairly under the Act, said Darin Reeves, assistant director of correctional services for the NWT.

Fewer youth in custody meant two youth correctional centres in the NWT - the River Ridge young offenders facility in Fort Smith, now an adult centre for those incarcerated with special needs, and the Dene K'onia young offenders facility in Hay River - were closed since 2003, said Reeves.

The two remaining centres are the North Slave young offenders facility in Yellowknife and the female young offenders facility in Inuvik.

"There is a strong effort being made in the way of programs to help youth when in custody," said Reeves, detailing employment, general life skills, anger management, and decision making programs available to all youth.

Focusing on justice hearings with victims and family is the right way to approach youth justice, said Lydia Bardak from the Yellowknife community justice committee.

"When you hurt people, it's a real person," said Bardak.

Involving family and community members to discuss the ramifications of the crime and propose solutions together shows youth they are not alone, said Bardak.