NCJ Number
199102
Date Published
February 1999
Length
425 pages
Annotation
This report, which is the first phase of a special study commissioned by Canada's National Justice Statistics Initiative, is intended as a reference document on administrative and operational policies pertinent to alternatives to formal justice processing for the management of both youth and adults in Canada.
Abstract
The report is based on the collection of national descriptive information on the organization and delivery of youth and adult alternative measures established pursuant to the Young Offender Act (1984) and the Sentencing Reform Act (1996). For the purposes of this report, the term "diversion" is used to identify the process of diverting from the traditional court system youth or adults who commit acts that could be considered criminal. Such alternative processes may include, but are not limited to, the use of police discretion not to bring charges, informal police warnings, and informal police referrals to community-based recreation services and informal police referrals to individual or family intervention services. The process of diversion may also include formal referrals to authorized alternative measures programs. This report begins with a national overview of alternative measures for both youth and adults. Subsequent chapters profile alternative measures for each Canadian jurisdiction. Topics covered in each chapter are the philosophy of alternative measures; responsibility for program delivery; referral agent; the roles of the police, the Crown (prosecutor), and the victim; the right to legal counsel; eligibility criteria; a flowchart that outlines the alternative measures process; a description of the alternative measures agreement; the range of alternative measures; the supervision and completion of the agreement; and information on record keeping requirements. Where available, appendixes provide samples of forms currently used in the jurisdiction as well as any currently available alternative measures data.