After a little over a year of existence, the Montreal-North Legal Clinic is adopting a new support program for young people aged 12 to 25. The objective is to make them understand the important consequences of not respecting their conditions of release.
“The objective is to help young people better understand the conditions they must respect after an arrest or a conviction, throughout the legal process”, explains the founder of the clinic, Me Marie-Livia Beaugé.
Quickly, the mandate was extended to young people who did not commit a first offense, among other things to prevent drug use and self-destructive behavior, according to administrative documents from the borough of Montreal-North.
A gear
Me Arij Riahi, the new director of the new SAJJ program, hopes to set up a team of five guides for 15 young people who will be referred to the clinic by police officers or borough organizations.
The goal is to make them understand the consequences of non-compliance with the conditions, which account for two-thirds of recidivism cases at the Municipal Court, according to research conducted in 2018 by Me Marie-Ève Sylvestre, professor at the University of ‘Ottawa.
A “disturbing” statistic, according to Me Riahi. Because the accumulation of new files can have serious consequences for a young person who would have committed a shoplifting and would have accumulated breaches of conditions by ignorance, by returning to the store or by not respecting the curfew imposed by the court.
Each new case is accompanied by a new sentence and reduces the chances of absolution, argues Me Beaugé. The accumulation of cases can even block access to alternative justice programs for people struggling with mental health or addiction issues.
Global support
The pilot project will initially run until January, but could continue thereafter.
It goes beyond legal aid, the two lawyers point out. They work in concert with the other organizations in the neighborhood, so as to be able to refer to them young people whose social situation risks leading to a new case in court because they are unemployed or unable to find housing.
By tackling the problem at the source, the two lawyers hope to avoid the spiral of judicialization and thus, have a real impact on the future of these young people.
Files that accumulate
66%: This is the proportion of repeat cases that are in fact breaches of conditions following a first offense, according to a study conducted in 2018 by Me Marie-Ève Sylvestre, researcher in law at the University of ‘Ottawa.
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