COH-AWH-What_Would_it_Take
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PREVENTING YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN THE CRIMINAL<br />
JUSTICE SYSTEM: Youth’s Proposed Solutions<br />
Policy & System Change<br />
• End police profiling and criminalization of young people who are poor and homeless<br />
• Establish accountabil<strong>it</strong>y mechanisms to mon<strong>it</strong>or and address harm caused to poor and<br />
homeless youth by police officers<br />
• Identify and systematically eliminate police profiling and criminalization of Indigenous<br />
Peoples and POC<br />
• Provide adequate and appropriate housing to youth who are trans<strong>it</strong>ioning out of corrections<br />
• End police policies that remove youth from public spaces, including specifically youth that<br />
appear poor or homeless<br />
• Provide alternatives to prison for youth w<strong>it</strong>h involvement in the criminal justice system<br />
• When sentencing youth who have experiences of homelessness or poverty, consider how<br />
the crime may be the direct consequence of youth trying to survive and feed themselves or<br />
their families<br />
Professional Conduct & Training<br />
• Ensure police adequately and appropriately respond to all reports of abuse and neglect, and<br />
do not leave children and youth exposed to violence<br />
Interventions<br />
• Provide increased programs and supports for youth trans<strong>it</strong>ioning from corrections, including<br />
information about available services, supports, and housing<br />
• Provide concrete, hands-on support to help youth trans<strong>it</strong>ioning from corrections to access<br />
healthcare, mental health care, and addictions supports and services<br />
• For youth who have spent many years incarcerated, provide education to support their<br />
trans<strong>it</strong>ion back into a society that may have changed significantly<br />
• Provide youth trans<strong>it</strong>ioning out of corrections w<strong>it</strong>h a mentor in the commun<strong>it</strong>y who had<br />
previous criminal justice involvement and has successfully maintained housing, employment,<br />
and not cycled back into the criminal justice system<br />
• For youth trans<strong>it</strong>ioning out of corrections, provide access to good qual<strong>it</strong>y jobs w<strong>it</strong>h horizons<br />
for growth<br />
• Offer programs that educate youth on their legal and human rights w<strong>it</strong>hin various systems,<br />
including the education system and the youth homelessness sector<br />
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 99
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