Abstract
The point of departure of legal regimes for child protection is the violation of a child’s fundamental rights by non-state actors. Children and youth who come under the custody of child protection authorities have experienced abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, violence; many exhibit serious behavioural problems. It is precisely because their families cannot protect them, or are the source of the violation of their rights, that the state intervenes. It does so to safeguard respect for their physical and psychological integrity and their right to health and education. And yet, the state-based institutions, designed for child and youth protection, have themselves become sources of rights violations. This chapter, drawing on the Quebec experience with youth detention centres, examines the ways in which institutional rules in Youth Rehabilitation Centres violate the basic human rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society – children and youth in state custody because they are considered in need of protection.
This paper draws on a chapter from my doctoral dissertation entitled Isolement et mesures disciplinaires dans les centres de réadaptation pour jeunes (Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2005). This text was translated by Dia Dabby with the collaboration of Colleen Sheppard.
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Notes
- 1.
On any average year, the population in rehabilitation centres for youth is composed of young offenders (about 25%) and youths in need of protection (about 75%).
- 2.
Youth Protection Act, S.R.Q., c. P-34.1, s. 38; see also the Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. res. 44/25 (1989), s. 19.
- 3.
Youth Protection Act, S.R.Q., c. P-34.1, s. 3. In the same way, see s. 33 of the Civil Code of Québec, S.Q. 1991, c. 64.
- 4.
In Québec, there are approximatively 50 youth rehabilitation centres. The vast majority of these centres receive adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18, who are sent pursuant to the Health and Social Services Act, the Youth Protection Act or the Youth Justice Criminal Act (S.C. 2002, c. 1): see Julie Desrosiers and Lucie Lemonde, “Les centres de réadaptation : protéger les uns et punir les autres (1869– )” (2000) 34 R.J.T. 435, 469 and more generally at pages 469–478.
- 5.
The research report by the Conseil permanent de la jeunesse [Permanent Counsel on Youth] largely canvassed youths’ comments on the dullness of the premises, the fences and gridded windows, the restrictions on freedom, the omnipresence of regulations and time spent locked up in their room. For youths, a rehabilitation centre was akin to prison. See Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, Les jeunes en centres jeunesse prennent la parole!, Research report, July 2004, especially pages 16–21.
- 6.
Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1961).
- 7.
Ibid, p. 5.
- 8.
Ibid, pp. 38–39 and 41.
- 9.
See “Foreword” by Robert Castel in the French translation of Erving Goffman’s Asylums: Erving Goffman, Asiles: études sur la constitution sociale des malades mentaux et autres reclus (trans. by Liliane and Claude Lainé, Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1968), p. 25.
- 10.
This position is defended by Lorraine Green and Wendy Parkin, “Sexuality, Sexual Abuse and Children’s Homes – Oppression or Protection?” in The Violence Against Children Study Group, Children, Child Abuse and Child Protection: Placing Children Centrally (Chichester: Wiley, 1999), pp. 115–192, at pp. 186–189. Closer to home, the Law Commission of Canada in Restoring Dignity, Responding to Child Abuse in Canadian Institutions (Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services, March 2000), p. 22, referred to reformatories, child protection institutions and residential schools for Aboriginal children (from the end of the nineteenth century up until the 1960s) as total institutions, that is to say “institutions that seek to re-socialise people by instilling them with new roles, skills or values.” Given that “it believes that the abuse of children in out-of-home care settings continues to this day” (p. 347), the Commission suggests to counter the institutional totalitarianism by openness to the outside. Accordingly, “Total institutions (…) must also take steps to minimise their own isolation from society. They must become less “total” by welcoming interaction with, and the involvement of, community members.” (p. 361).
- 11.
In October 2000, we wrote to all youth centers in Québec asking them to send us their internal rules regarding disciplinary measures as well as their current codes of conduct in rehabilitation units. After a few reminders, we were able to obtain all the internal rules, but had mitigating success for the codes of conduct. Only the Centre jeunesse du Bas St-Laurent et le Centre jeunesse de Québec responded entirely to our request, however.
- 12.
The selected centres included: secure rehabilitation units for girls (Centre jeunesse de Québec, Campus adolescentes Escale, Unité Perce-Vent, Code et procédures de l’encadrement intensif, April 1998, 23 pages and the Centre jeunesse du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Unité l’Anse. Code et procédures, March 2000, 18 pages); regular rehabilitation units for girls: (Centre jeunesse de Québec, Code et procédures de l’unité multiprogramme La Nacelle, June 1999, 8 pages & Centre jeunesse du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Unité La villa Dion. Code de vie, October 2000, 12 pages); secure rehabilitation units for boys: (Centre jeunesse de Québec, Le Gouvernail, Codes et procédures de l’Unité Foyer, Janurary 2000, 13 pages & Centre jeunesse du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Unité Le Quai, Code et procédures, July 2000, 25 pages); and regular rehabilitation units for boys: (Centre jeunesse de Québec, Unité Le Rivage. Codes et procédures, September 5, 2000, 9 pages & Centre jeunesse du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Unité L’Ancrage. Code de vie et normes et procédures, January 2000, 19 pages). The relevant excerpts from the codes of conduct are reproduced in Desrosiers., Isolement et mesures disciplinaires dans les centres de réadaptation pour jeunes (Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2005), at Annex 3, at the corresponding heading. The annex contains, for example, under the “admission” section, all passages from the codes of conduct that address this theme.
- 13.
Corinne Rostaing, La relation carcérale. Identités et rapports sociaux dans les prisons pour femmes (Paris: PUF, 1997), p. 144. [Our translation] The original, in French: “même si les cérémonies d’admission ont changé (…), même si la coupe obligatoire ou le port du droguet n’existent plus, il subsiste la douche obligatoire, la fouille corporelle, le tri des objets personnels, la prise d’empreintes, les photos anthropométriques… […] l’entrée dans l’institution totale marque la coupure par rapport à la vie précédente, la rupture des habitudes, la perte de son ancien statut social. Elle force l’individu à se défaire de son moi antérieur ce qui le rend vulnérable.”
- 14.
Giorgio Cesari, Psychiatrie et pouvoir (Paris: Éd. Anthropologie, 1979), p. 125 [Our translation]. The original, in French: “ce qui détermine le caractère antisocial du comportement de la femme mineure est rarement d’ordre de la délinquance au sens ordinaire que l’on donne à ce mot quand il s’agit de son homologue mâle (vol dans la plupart des cas), mais l’utilisation pure et simple de son corps – le corps sexué – en dehors des codes établis par la société des mâles.”
- 15.
Centre jeunesse de Québec, Campus adolescentes Escale, Unité Perce-Vent, Code et procédures de l’encadrement intensif, April 1998 [Our translation].
- 16.
It is the same at the Anse unit, where the adolescent must stay in her room to take notice of the code of conduct until she receives permission to step out. Unité l’Anse. Code et procédures, March 2000: “This arrival time gives you time to install yourself and take notice of the code and procedures. A questionnaire will be given to you after having read the code of conduct and procedures to make sure that you have understood.” [Our translation]
- 17.
It is also the same for the Le Foyer unit, where the “first five days, [the adolescent will have to] have reflection periods. [There will be] a reflection period in the afternoon and another at night. If [attending] school, [he will only have] one reflection period at night. The reflection period last an hour and is during a structured activity.” (Le Gouvernail, Code et procédures de l’Unité Foyer, January 2000). [Our translation]
- 18.
Goffman, supra note 6, pp. 18–21.
- 19.
Code et procédures de l’unité multiprogramme La Nacelle, June 1999 [Our translation].
- 20.
Unité l’Anse – Code et procédures, March 2000 [Our translation].
- 21.
Unité Perce-Vent – Code et procédures de l’encadrement intensif, April 1998 [Our translation].
- 22.
Codes et procédures de l’Unité Foyer, January 2000, p. 11 [Our translation].
- 23.
Unité Le Rivage – Code et procédures, 2000, p. 6 [Our translation].
- 24.
Id.
- 25.
Id.
- 26.
Id. In the same way, see, Unité l’Ancrage – Code de vie et normes et procédures, January 2000; and Codes et procédures de l’Unité Foyer, January 2000 [Our translation].
- 27.
Unité l’Ancrage - Code de vie et normes et procédures, January 2000 [Our translation].
- 28.
Paul Amselek, “ La teneur indécise du droit ” (1992) 26 R.J.T. 1.
- 29.
Unité Le Quai - Code et procédures, July 2000 [Our translation]; Unité l’Anse - Code et procédures, March 2000; Unité La villa Dion - Code de vie, October 2000 [Our translation].
- 30.
Unité l’Anse - Code et procédures, March 2000 [Our translation].
- 31.
Unité Perce-Vent, Code et procédures de l’encadrement intensif, April 1998 [Our translation]
- 32.
Unité l’Ancrage - Code de vie et normes et procédures, January 2000 [Our translation].
- 33.
Goffman, supra note 6, p. 31.
- 34.
Unité l’Anse - Code et procédures, March 2000 [Our translation].
- 35.
Unité La villa Dion - Code de vie, October 2000 [Our translation].
- 36.
Unité l’Ancrage – Code de vie et normes et procédures, January 2000 [Our translation].
- 37.
Goffman, supra note 6, pp. 48–51.
- 38.
Ibid, p. 48.
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
This example is drawn from the Interlude (girls) unit’s code of conduct, Centre jeunesse de Laval, undated, p. 11 [Our translation].
- 41.
Unité Le Quai - Code et procédures, July 2000, p. 13: “Occupied free time means that you must decide on the activity that you want to do during a given period of the day as defined in the program. If you are unable to make a choice, it is the educator that will make the decision and you will have to respect his choice. The permitted activities during occupied free time are as follows: board games, cards, checkers, reading or others. All games are in the library, you must only make a choice. When you have finished, you must put it back in its place.” [Our translation]
- 42.
See Desrosiers, supra note 12, Annex 3, at heading 3.4.6.
- 43.
See the Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, Les jeunes en centre jeunesse prennent la parole!, supra note 5, p. 67.
- 44.
We had the privilege of consulting these files within the framework of a 30 day in situ observation conducted in the spring of 2002 in three secure rehabilitation units of the Centres jeunesse de Montréal [Youth Centers of Montreal], Unité d’arrêt d’agir l’Intervalle, Centre de réadaptation Dominique-Savio-Mainbourg; Unité d’encadrement intensif Inouik, Centre de réadaptation Cité-des-Prairies; Unité de garde fermée l’Épisode, Centre de réadaptation Cité-des-Prairies. We were three observers sharing the task. During those 30 days, we shared the daily life of the youths, 8 h a day, distributed over different moments of the day, in order to observe the whole day, from morning to night.
- 45.
The educator will make the sanction override the hours of class so that the boy will stay in his room rather than go to the “problem solving” and to his French class. So as to not be too delayed when compared to the rest of his group and so as to avoid that a withdrawal becoming the equivalent to a school break, he will nevertheless have to take up the activity and French class in his room. He will have to do the required homework during a period of time that is equivalent to the one that he would have normally spent devoted to those tasks.
- 46.
“To conform,” means that the adolescent will say what he thinks his educator wants to hear, in order to avoid further problems, but is not sincere.
- 47.
It is a unit devoted to off-duty withdrawal and is managed by security agents. The withdrawal rooms are concrete, completely empty and without windows. Efficient monitoring of the lock-up of youths is ensured by video cameras.
- 48.
It is prohibited to listen to the radio before going to bed.
- 49.
When all youths have completed their chores, the educator decrees a cigarette break. Under current circumstances, Stéphane answered Max, who seems to hurry through his task so that he could go smoke, whereas he had no reason to hurry since he did not smoke.
- 50.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, S.R.C. (1985), app. II, no. 44, s. 7; Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, S.R.Q., c. C-12, s. 1 and s. 24; see also the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles deprived of their Liberty (‘the Havana Rules’) 1990, G.A. res. 45/113 (1990) and the United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (‘Riyadh Guidelines’), G.A. res. 45–112 (1990), s. 21 and 54.
- 51.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, S.R.C. (1985), app. II, no. 44, s. 7; United Nations Standard Minimum Rules For the Treatment of Prisoners (1975), adopted by the First Congress of the United Nations for the prevention of crime and treatment of delinquents (Geneva, 1955), applicable to minors deprived of freedom through the UN Standard Minimum Rules on the Administration of Juvenile Justice (‘the Beijing Rules’), G.A. res. 40/33 (1985); UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles deprived of their Liberty (‘the Havana Rules’) 1990, G.A. res. 45/113 (1990).
- 52.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. res. 44/25 (1989), ss. 3, 28, 39; Youth Protection Act, S.R.Q., c. P-34.1, s. 3 and s. 10. Civil Code of Québec, S.Q. 1991, c. 64, s. 33.
- 53.
Comité d’étude sur la réadaptation des enfants et adolescents placés en centre d’accueil, Québec, Minister of Social Affairs, 1976 (better known as the Batshaw Committee), Principles 14–16 : “Principle 14. The child has the right to know the regulations that apply at the youth shelter, and a copy must be handed over and explained when admitted to the center. Principle 15. No disciplinary measure must be taken against a child unless it is for an infraction to the institution’s regulations. Principle 16. The child has the right to be protected against humiliating, excessive and cruel punishments.” [Our translation]
- 54.
Youth Protection Act, S.R.Q., c. P-34.1, s. 10.
- 55.
This reality is expressed many times in the Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, Les jeunes en centre jeunesse prennent la parole!, supra note 5. See especially the following comment at page 46: “It is the educators, it is them who decide. If you say anything, whether you are right or not and they tell you: Go to your room!, you go to your room. If they find that you move too much or speak too loudly: Go relax in your room followed by a reflection period. And if they are not satisfied with what is on the page, they will slide back under the door and will make you work until you admit that you are the problem.” [Our translation]
- 56.
Conseil permanent de la jeunesse, Les jeunes en centre jeunesse prennent la parole!, supra note 5, p. 47 [Our translation].
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Desrosiers, J. (2013). The Rigidity and Density of Discipline in Youth Rehabilitation Centres … Or Rules That Counter Rights. In: Provost, R., Sheppard, C. (eds) Dialogues on Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4710-4_8
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