Saskatoon Court Article

Saskatoon Court of Appeal Finds Juvenile Should be in Custody

Betty Ann Adam
Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service

Thursday, February 05, 2004

SASKATOON -- A youth court judge placed too much emphasis on rehabilitation and not enough on public safety when she sentenced a teenage gang member with an alcohol-related brain defect to probation instead of custody, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has ruled.

The 17-year-old, known only as BLM because of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was returned to custody following the Nov. 13, 2003 appeal court ruling, written by Madam Justice Georgina Jackson and released last week.

The Crown had appealed the sentence.

The youth is now serving 15 months in secure custody to be followed by 71/2 months community supervision for two robberies, an assault and a breach of probation.

Jackson, along with Justice Calvin Tallis and Justice Gary Lane, over-ruled an 18-month probation order made May 30 by Judge Mary-Ellen Turpel Lafond, who had expressed frustration with the lack of provincial government services to implement provisions of the new Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

Turpel Lafond had predicted the youth faced a bleak future of incarceration if no community resources were made available to support youths with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

The appeal court decision proved her correct.

"Public protection through the rehabilitation of BLM must give way to public protection through a custodial sentence," Jackson wrote.

"To sentence a youth to probation when there is no effective support does not protect the public and is not a fit sentence," she wrote.

In ordering probation last May, Turpel Lafond dismissed a joint submission by the youth's lawyer and the Crown prosecutor recommending 16 months closed custody and eight months of community supervision.

The probation order was a lesser sentence than a previous February 2002 sentence of six months closed custody, 12 months open custody and six months probation for three increasingly violent robberies by BLM of other youths committed in 2001.

In January 2003 BLM was serving the open custody portion of that sentence at Yarrow Youth Farm where he convinced another youth to join his gang.

The pair escaped and, while at large, robbed a convenience store and a drugstore.

After they were arrested, BLM was placed in an interview room with a youth, where he head-butted the youth to obtain his shoes.

In May 2003 Turpel Lafond ordered a medical brain impairment screening and a neuro-psychological assessment, which revealed a form of FASD.