Ontario’s closure of youth detention facilities has not resulted in more support for young people
Posted on September 29, 2024 in Child & Family Delivery System
Source: TheConversation.com — Authors: Hannah Zur, Jessica Evans, Linda Mussel
TheConversation.com
September 24, 2024. Authors: Jessica Evans, Hannah Zur, Linda Mussel
Without investment in community-based service providers to support youth being transitioned out of custodial settings, it is unlikely that youth will thrive.
The Ontario government said it would save $40 million per year by closing 26 youth detention centres in 2021, with promises to use those savings to support community services for youth.
Framed as a cost-savings strategy aligned with the objectives of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the money saved through the closures would be reinvested in community-based services and alternatives to youth detention.
Since these closures, however, there has been no government reporting on where or when this $40 million will be reinvested. Meanwhile, organizations that serve youth report ongoing resource constraints.
The closure of youth detention centres is a positive development. However, without adequate investment in community organizations that serve youth, it is a move set up to fail.
Read more: Ontario closes half of its youth detention centres, leaving some young people in limbo
Youth detention in Ontario
Between 2018 and 2022, youth imprisonment numbers fell by around 50 per cent in Ontario. That continued a longer trend which has seen youth detention numbers fall by over 85 per cent over a 25-year period from 1997 to 2022. There has also been a recent uptick in youth imprisonment numbers, increasing from 9,654 in 2021-22 to 10,960 in 2022-23.
Currently, Ontario’s youth prisons are at overcapacity, and the Sudbury youth detention centre is set to close next year.
Several of the 26 youth detention centres that were closed were situated in northern Ontario. The Ontario Ombudsman, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Grand Council Treaty #3 have said the abrupt closures would disproportionately impact Indigenous youth in detention.
Community organizations overwhelmed
We have examined the annual reports for 2019-24 from 46 organizations serving youth in the justice system from Kenora, Thunder Bay and Kingston where a significant number of the youth detention closures occurred.
While many community organizations believe closing detention centres is a good long-term decision, there are many immediate concerns. We found consistent reporting of limited funding to support all youth in need.
Organizations are impacted by record-high numbers of youth seeking access to services, with some organizations seeing a significant increase in the number of youth accessing their services — especially mental health programs. This has resulted in some organizations increasing the hours and days they are open to accommodate as many youth as possible, while also balancing staff burnout.
Organizations did not report any substantial increase in funds from the government due to the closure of youth detention centres. Some noted challenges around fundraising, as many events were put on hold during the pandemic. This has resulted in organizations being unable to hire new staff or increase their services. In some cases this has also led to staff layoffs.
Investing in community
Deinstitutionalization refers to the period when institutions that housed or confined people with mental, cognitive, intellectual and physical disabilities were shut down, and people were released to live in communities.
However, this process is often not met with sufficient funding for social supports. Inevitably, more people struggling with mental health end up in hospital emergency departments and in conflict with the law. This shift in responsibility has been referred to as transinstitutionalization.
We have written about these trends in Ontario following the 2021 youth detention centre closures. Many of the young people in these centres struggle with mental health issues, neurodivergence and addictions.
Significant investments in community supports are needed. Otherwise, many youth will continue to be funneled into other institutions, including hospitals and adult prisons.
Since 2009, Ontario has seen a significant increase in hospital emergency room visits for mental health or substance-related concerns, especially among 14–21 year olds. Mental illness and drug dependence are some of the most prevailing health problems for criminalized Canadians. In a study of 1,770 young people in Québec, researchers found those struggling with alcohol or drugs and familial problems are more likely to face re-imprisonment.
Helping youth in detention
In 2023, a justice centre was opened in Kenora, and in 2024, funding was announced for child and youth mental health in Ontario. Yet, more support is needed. In many northern, rural and remote communities, services for children and youth with intensive needs simply do not exist.
Youth face a number of additional barriers accessing support and treatment. These include long wait lists, overemphasis on illness-based and medical models, fragmented services, lack of developmentally and culturally appropriate services, and support that fails to consider the preferences and perspectives of youth and families.
Strains on youth community supports are also felt in other provinces. Researchers interviewed youth justice community workers in Alberta who reported inadequate funding with impacts on resources for youth, including psychological support and the ability for staff to give enough attention and time to youth. Conditions also lead to staff burnout and exit from the sector altogether.
The move to shift youth in the justice system away from confinement and towards community is a positive one. However, without investment in community-based service providers to support youth being transitioned out of custodial settings, it is unlikely that youth will thrive.
Such failures are likely to increase acute mental health crises and demands on ambulatory care within general medicine and psychiatric hospitals. These gaps are also likely to increase the number of youth who will come into conflict with the criminal legal system as adults.
Jessica Evans, Assistant Professor, Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Hannah Zur, Research Assistant, Department of Criminology and Social Justice, Toronto Metropolitan University
Linda Mussel, Lecturer, Political Science and International Relations, University of Canterbury
https://theconversation.com/ontarios-closure-of-youth-detention-facilities-has-not-resulted-in-more-support-for-young-people-238748?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%2025%202024&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%2025%202024+CID_e16b1587c402df70a5840a909730c690&utm_source=campaign_monitor_ca&utm_term=Ontarios%20closure%20of%20youth%20detention%20facilities%20has%20not%20resulted%20in%20more%20support%20for%20young%20people
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, jurisdiction, poverty, youth
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8 Responses to “Ontario’s closure of youth detention facilities has not resulted in more support for young people”
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Just reading the article makes me concerned as a future Social Service Worker, however, as such, I am inclined to advocate for systemic change. The closure of detention centers for youth may have been a positive development however without the proper and adequate consideration of support services available to those accessing the centers, even if in small numbers, was not thought through. Promises do not support change, ACTION does. Before closures there should have already been effective community-based alternatives in place that would consider prioritizing the underlining issues as to what drives youth to delinquency. Services available that would address rehabilitation, access to a broader education and services to support the family in need. In most cases it is understood that youth involved in delinquency and the justice system are often coping with many factors that contribute to their behaviors, such as; poverty, family problems, mental health challenges and lack of adequate education. Alternatives besides such punitive measures would be restorative justice systems that focus on Respect, Empathy, Accountability and Healing, mentorships or community service, are the services that could have benefitted from the promised $40 million savings by closing the facilities. These services aid in a positive developmental outcome and reduce the repeat cycle of crimes. Ultimately, the closure of Detention facilities shows there is a commitment in building a more just and rehabilitative system, but the promise is a commitment that yet has to take place. Without these measures that should have been considered as it is easy to research, the future of the hard work that’s going to have to take place in the presence of all the workers that care to help our vulnerable begins, again, due to unfulfilled promises. This is going to have an effect of our future social service workers as well, including myself, because we will be stretched beyond our limits leading to burnout due to the lack of external resources that simply are not available because of broken promises. This needs to change. Let’s do our due diligence by extensive research and plans in motion before acting on place A so impulsively. Promises do not promote change, ACTION does.
To concern of many people from different places of holding youth in Ontario have been shut down. Even though the troubled institution is seeking to save cash and part fund locally based services there are fear regarding the impact on youths. Failure to seek adequate funding and sponsorship like closures may worsen cases of youth homelessness,ill health and participate in legal scrappers. As a future social worker,i will stand for vunerable young people in order to defend them. I believe that it is time to come over with this situation and make the society better with the assistance of cooperation of specialists and community organizations.For example,regarding support of increased CBO services funding, development of trauma informed care,support for justice and also support of good relations with indigenous stakeholders. With all these, everyone will be offered a leveled playing field as to what they are in order to become or develop as they learn to grow up. At last, i would like to say that this article gives me the deep information about this issue of closure youth detention facilities has not resulted in more support for young people .In future, i hope that it would be solving this issue as a social worker field.
After reading this article and researching how this will affect me in my role as a Social Service Worker, this is a big issue that needs to be addressed. We cannot survive positively as a society without implementing community-based services to address the issue of youth in detention centers. Youths are facing multiple challenges and will continue to repeat the cycle of crime if we do not act on why the youth are doing what they are doing. By implementing community-based services, we are looking at the cycle of crime and trying to reduce it by working with those youth and doing what we can to prevent the issue. We, as social service workers, will work to continue with mental health support, housing, education and other needs of the youth. Without the funding being put back into community support services such as mental health, housing, health, addictions and education, we cannot help youth as much as we would like to. therefore, creating more problems for society and possibly increasing the number of adults in prison or trouble with the law since these youth will grow up and lack support to change behaviours.
We already have a decline in support systems for our society, and social service workers are in demand. We do not want to add another negative to society, and this issue, I believe, will do more harm than good. Advocacy is big, and we have a voice to use, so let’s put it to good use and help our youth before it’s too late. This is one of the elements of being a social service worker.
As a future social service worker it was interesting to study in depth the core issues stemming from the closure of 26 youth detention facilities. While it can be seen as a good thing since the closures where a result from the downward trend of admissions over the last 25 years, the closures where poorly planned. This will impact me because such policy changes resulted in social workers and social service workers scrambling to ensure the changes are actually benefiting the public. Between long hours, short staff and limiting funds social workers and social service workers are feeling the effects of burnout, a harsh reality I too, will have to face. While studying trauma-informed practice and applying it to this issue I was able to see that we lack interventions that center around trauma healing despite the evidence showing close correlation to trauma and crime. However, we lack funding and direction to ensure that the programming we do have reflects the newly updated research. The lack of follow through and commitment to funding will leave us frontline workers ill-equipped to help the public.
To reflect on my personal perspective, I believe this situation emphasizes the role-play of power or imbalances of power, even politics because the funds were not reinvested for the youth. If there are no youth detention facilities, it could lead to a cobweb of societal issues. I believe the youth transitioning out of detention facilities without adequate support are at risk of relapse, mental health crises, and falling into adult correctional systems. Eventually, it may also lead to issues in the health sectors such as patient overflow in the psychiatric ward or Emergency ward in the hospital. So, we as Social Service Workers should focus on improving societal systems to foster resilience, ensure safety, and break cycles of intergenerational trauma and criminalization. A failure to act would contradict and dispute the social service profession’s core commitment to advocating for and empowering vulnerable populations. In my future practice, this issue reinforces the importance of advocating for systemic change for the marginalized population. This situation highlighted the increase in youth seeking mental health and addiction support and reminded me of the importance of cultural competency and trauma-informed practice because many youths in the justice system, especially Indigenous youth, face critical challenges stemming from systemic inequities and historical intergenerational trauma. I acknowledge that this issue requires me to build a strong, trusting rapport and relationships with clients while navigating the limitations of underfunded services. This issue challenges me to think critically about how I can contribute to solutions at both individual and systemic levels. It impels me to focus not only on immediate needs but on broader advocacy efforts to ensure youth have access to the comprehensive, community-based support they need to thrive. I must address my work in Social Service Work with sensitivity, ensuring that the services I provide or connect youth to are appropriate both developmentally and culturally.
This article shows that we have a dire need for help for community services for youth in need. It doesn’t only impact the youth in need of help but also impacts the workers as they cannot give the attention nor the time needed for the youth in need. The lack of support from the government has increased the number of youth imprisonment over 1,000 in one year. These facilities were closed with a promise that it was going towards community services for youth, however this was never proven or even shown in any kind of way. Since the closure of these detention facilities community organizations are overwhelmed because of the increase in youth accessing services and not enough workers to support these youths. Organizations are trying their best to accommodate as many youths as possible, however with the increase in youth accessing these services and there not being enough workers, SW and SSW are experiencing burnout and living the sector all together. Without the proper funding or service for youth to access the problem will only continue to grow and more and more youths are gonna be in need of support. As the number of youths in need of help keep growing it will impact my future practice as a social service worker because with not having enough workers in the sector and not the proper funding or support from the government the workload will be heavy and I will more likely experience “burnout”. This article made me realize that it’s important to address mental health for youths as that there is poor support for those in need. Services that should be easy to access are the hardest ones to acces and there isn’t enough help throughout northern Ontario. It also made me realize that SW and SSW worker can be a heavy workload and I need to be prepared for tough situations and to focus on helping the community in the best way I can.
As a future Social Service worker the closure of the 26 youth detention facilities will hugely impact my future career. We will see a huge increase of numbers on the amount of youth who are seeking help, the work days will increase in hours trying to accommodate for everyone’s needs. Most importantly the youth themselves hoping to receive support but possibly being let down when they don’t get it right away because there isn’t enough workers to be able to take on such a high demand. Some workers may even have to experience a shift in what type of support system they work in, many may have to begin working in outreach programs, mental health services which can also get pretty exhausting being a social service worker having to work outside your areas of expertise. In doing so, as a social worker you may experience some type of burn out from over working yourself trying to help everyone, you may end up forgetting about yourself. The closure of these detention centres may have been to try and save money, but now they are paying for the many more hours social workers are working to try to get these youth back into a well state and to help them continue on in the rest of their lives. I hope as a future social service worker we manage to get these numbers of youth that are in need to decrease and help as many youth out as we can.
The lack of support for young people around the closure of youth detention facilities in Ontario will impact my future career as a social worker in many ways. Because of the closure of multiple youth detention facilities, many organizations are facing an overwhelming amount of intakes, resulting in staff having longer shifts, working harder, and overworking. “Organizations are impacted by record-high numbers of youth seeking access to services, with some organizations seeing a significant increase in the number of youth accessing their services — especially mental health programs. This has resulted in some organizations increasing the hours and days they are open to accommodate as many youth as possible while also balancing staff burnout” (Zur et al., 2024). Another way this will affect my career in social work is the amount of struggling youth I will work with. “Between 2018 and 2022, youth imprisonment numbers fell by around 50 percent in Ontario. That continued a longer trend which has seen youth detention numbers fall by over 85 percent over a 25-year period from 1997 to 2022” (Zur et al., 2024). Overall, The closure of these facilities is resulting in more youth needing access to mental health services and many mental health workers and organizations being overworked. In the next few years, I am expecting the number of youth in need to increase which will result in more work for social workers in the field.