Justice Centres in Toronto

Insert ministry name here Ministry of the Attorney General AA3.2 Justice Centres Presentation for the Toronto Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Committee February 11, 2020 Overview Purpose of Briefing • To provide an project update to the Toronto Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Committee about the Justice Centre project and pilots which are tracking to launch in Spring 2020 (TBD). • Ministry of the Attorney General- City of Toronto Collaboration on Justice Centres and Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan. • Justice Centres will not replace existing diversion programs and specialized courts, including the Gladue Court Program. It is envisioned to provide a new low barrier and high impact option for individuals who would benefit from comprehensive supports in a community-based setting. Briefing Overview • What is a Justice Centre • Context and Background • Vision for Justice Centre Pilots • Appendices 2. Background: Ontario’s Guns, Gangs, and Violence Reduction Strategy and Justice Centres • On March 26, 2019, the Government announced Phase 2 of Ontario’s Long-term and Guns, Gangs, and Violence Reduction Strategy. The Strategy takes a sustainable reduction comprehensive approach to community safety by delivering (1) of guns, gangs and strong enforcement and prosecution, (2) proactive gang disruption violence requires a and intervention, and (3) tailored youth and adult violence cross-sectoral prevention. approach that works collectively on • One of the signature initiatives under the Strategy is to establish enforcement, Justice Centres in 4 communities across the province (1. Toronto- intervention and Northwest, 2. Toronto-Downtown East, 3. Kenora, and 4. London). prevention, to achieve shared goals. • On August 28, 2019, the Government announced Phase 3 of the Strategy, which commits additional funding to extend Phase 2 initiatives, as well as investments in new initiatives to combat guns and gangs on all fronts. • $16.4M was committed to Phase 2 initiatives over two years (2018/19-2019/20) and $58M was committed to Phase 3 over three years (2020/21-2023/24). Phase 2 and Phase 3 are funded, in part, through the Federal Government’s Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund. 3 What is a Justice Centre? • Introduced in over 70 communities around the world, Justice Centres move justice out of the traditional courtroom and into a community setting. These centres bring together justice, health, employment, education and social services to address the root causes of crime, break the cycle of offending, and improve public safety and community well-being. • Tailored to the unique needs of local communities, these centres co-locate justice facilities (e.g. courtrooms) with front-end supports (e.g. primary healthcare, mental health supports), prevention services (e.g. employment and skills training) and community re-integration supports (e.g. peer counselling). • By bringing different sectors together under one roof, Justice Centres help partners develop and deliver effective local gun and gang initiatives. Justice Centres are well-suited to house intervention initiatives that provide exit strategies for youth and young adults already involved in gang activity and prevention programming to support at-risk youth with alternatives to entering gangs. • The Justice Centre model improves outcomes for offenders, victims and communities by holding individuals accountable for their offences while connecting them to services that reduce the risk of re-offending. Central to the approach is a commitment to better support victims and communities harmed by crime. 4. Justice Centres - Success in Other Jurisdictions • The Justice Centre model is a proven best practice in over 70 communities, with demonstrated results: • Reduced recidivism rates • Reduced over-reliance on incarceration • Improved public safety and community well-being • Increased confidence and trust in the justice system Canada’s only Justice Centre, The Red Hook Community Justice Centre (Brooklyn, Vancouver’s Downtown Community New York) has achieved: Court (since 2008), has been successful • 35% reduction in number of offenders receiving jail in increasing diversion, reducing sentences. recidivism, increasing access to services, • Adult offenders were 10% less likely to commit new improving integrated service delivery, crimes than similar offenders in a traditional court. and improving local community well- • Young offenders were 20% less likely to re-offend. being. • $4,756 in savings per defendant, and total of $15 million in avoided victimization costs. • Independent evaluations of Justice Centre models have concluded that local, coordinated and multi- agency responses are required to achieve long-term and sustainable reduction of crime. A new made- in-Ontario model will be informed by lessons learned and best practices from around the world. 5. Long-Term Vision for Ontario’s Justice Centres 6 Unique Justice Centre Model in Each Community Toronto-Downtown East – Community Health Focus Focus Population: Adults aged 18+, with Pilot Description: The Intensive Community Justice and Health Intervention recent history of recidivism. Priority will Pilot will provide timely, community-based interventions and wrap-around be individuals with mental supports for chronic adult offenders who are repeatedly cycling through the health/addictions issues and/or justice system and require resource-intensive responses. Pilot would create concurrent disorders, who do not qualify an innovative multi-sectoral service delivery model, based on co-located on- for existing programs and specialized site services and partnerships with off-site services/programs, that offers courts in Toronto-Downtown East (such access to immediate crisis treatment and healthcare, proportionate and as Direct Accountability Program, mental effective justice dispositions, comprehensive needs-based assessment, and health diversion, or mental health or inter-agency case management. Pilot would also introduce an enhanced drug treatment courts). victim and community impact process. Toronto-Northwest – Community Violence Reduction Focus Focus Population: Youth aged 12-17 in Pilot Description: The Enhanced First Appearance Pilot would provide Police Divisions 12, 22, 23, 31, 32 & 33. interventions for at-risk youth through a specialized justice process that combines a criminal risks/needs/responsivity (RNR)-based assessment with TNW has a higher proportion of youth culturally relevant and trauma informed services tailored to TNW’s racialized cases related to violent offending than youth. This pilot would be one of the first youth-focused first appearance pilots other jurisdictions in Ontario, and in Ontario to use the RNR model and would be available to all youth charged in violent offending by youth is also TNW. The Robbery Pilot would introduce an enhanced case management escalating. In particular, robbery is the model specific to youth charged with robberies to: identify risk factors, monitor number one offence committed by progress with individualized offender plans, and implement multi-sectoral case TNW youth, and youth charged with management. In addition to the pilots, a new violence escalation prevention robberies are re-offending at higher program - focused on education, employment, skills training and pro-social rates. values - will be developed and available to any young person at high risk for further violent criminal offending or gang involvement. 7 Unique Justice Centre Model in Each Community Kenora – Indigenous Justice Focus The Kenora Justice Centre will include parallel criminal and Indigenous restorative justice processes. Through a participatory design process with the local community, Indigenous leadership, and Kenora Justice Centre Advisory Council, MAG is exploring a number of pilot opportunities to reduce bail and remand populations in Kenora, including: • Enhancing post-charge diversion through increases referrals to restorative justice programs. • Providing early access to multi-sectoral and culturally-appropriate healing-to-wellness assessments to inform meaningful bail solutions and reduce number of cases in remand • Implementing a new judicially-led pre-trial court day, designed to reduce overreliance on short sharp dispositions, in appropriate cases, in favour of community-based solutions and restorative processes • Exploring enhanced assessment supports and training for the Mental Health Court in Pikangikum • Expanding opportunities to advocate for bail beds, transitional housing and supportive housing • Improving discharge planning, re-integration supports and transportation post-release on bail or from the Kenora Jail. London – Youth-in-Transition Focus Focus Population: Youth-in-transition aged 18- Pilot Description: The Specialized Youth-in-Transition Pre-Charge 24. Priority will be on youth who are not in Diversion Pilot and Youth-in-Transition Early Intervention Pilot employment, education or training (NEET youth). would increases use of pre- and post-charge diversion through the implementation of a formal pre-charge diversion pilot (with London London has one of the highest provincial Police Service), combined with needs-based screening to identify numbers of NEET youth, and Ontario-based risk factors (e.g. unemployment, disconnection from school) and research shows that NEET youth are more likely multi-sectoral, wrap-around interventions to connect young adults to come into contact with the criminal justice with services that address risk factors (e.g. Ontario Youth Job system. London also has a high population

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