The Justice Minister’s probation system is flawed and does not factor in FASD, which is a major issue in reducing repeat youth crime: Gerrard

 Winnipeg – Manitoba Liberal Party Leader and MLA for River Heights, Jon Gerrard, today called on Minster of Justice, Andrew Swan to immediately start a complete review of all probation cases involving monitoring bracelets.  Gerrard also promoted the Liberal’s comprehensive approach to reducing repeat youth offenders by including FASD testing as part of the justice process.

 “I am asking the Minister of Justice and the NDP to do the right thing and conduct an emergency review of all active probation cases that involve the use of monitoring bracelets.  Our prosecutors and police are telling us that the case currently in the media isn’t isolated and that this scenario happens all the time,” said Gerrard.  “We need to listen to our justice professionals and act quickly to keep Manitobans safe and keep chronic youth offenders under surveillance.”

 Gerrard also suggested that the NDP’s justice system is flawed because it does not require mandatory testing of repeat young offenders for FASD.  “Some studies indicate that 23% of youth in the justice system have FASD so until you make FASD testing a mandatory part of the justice process for repeat youth offenders, we will see little to no improvement in reducing crimes like car theft.  These kids’ brains simply do not operate the same as kids without FASD.  We need to know about this disorder when sentencing youth offenders.” 

 “I have been calling on the NDP for years to adopt mandatory FASD testing and to develop better processes for dealing with FASD kids in the justice system.  The NDP have resisted adopting these Liberal suggestions and we are now seeing the end result of the NDP’s lack of action.  To stop the increasing rate of youth offenders and to keep Manitobans safe, this NDP government must act immediately to address FASD in our justice system,” said Gerrard. 

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 For more information, please contact: Michelle Nyhof, Communications Officer for Manitoba Liberal Caucus at (204) 771-2513 or michelle.nyhof@leg.gov.mb.ca