3 N.B. boys: One stole buses, one burned his bridges, the other lived alone

At age 15, he ran away from his group home, stole a school bus and led Fredericton police on a city-wide chase that ended with a spike belt.

That was in September 2019 near the end of a dangerous summer, when the boy accrued 14 criminal charges while living in a group home.

It wasn't the first time he absconded with a school bus. He tried it at least three other times and even managed to drive one bus to Moncton then Sussex before being found by the RCMP.

He also had a preoccupation with fire.

His mother says he heard voices in his head that told him to set fires and "burn her up." She had six smoke detectors installed and was still afraid to sleep at night.

"I cannot overemphasize the severity of the safety issues resulting from [the boy's] developmental disorders and associated behaviours," Dr. Tara Kennedy wrote in a letter dated March 15.

She said the boy, now 16, had an intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder.

Her letter, along with a dozen affidavits filed in the Court of Queen's Bench, will be used as evidence when lawyers for the minister of social development argue at trial that the boy should never be returned to his mother's care.

The minister is seeking permanent guardianship on the grounds the boy is in danger because his mother is unwilling or unable to control him.

It will also be argued that remaining in the minister's care is the only way the boy can continue to receive the services he needs.

The documents also suggest that it took a public safety crisis, criminal charges and a court intervention to get some of those services.

It's not supposed to work that way, says New Brunswick's child and youth advocate.

"We hear all too frequently from parents that if their child could just commit a crime, then he or she could get mental health or addictions services," Norm Boss wrote in his 2015 report More Care, Less Court.

"Using the criminal law and courts to obtain mental health services is a terribly stigmatizing, frightening and inappropriate means of trying to get help for a youth with mental health problems."

And yet the stories of three youths who are now before New Brunswick courts show how this still happens.

Bus theft charges dropped

As a result of the boy's criminal charges, which included three counts of stealing a school bus and one count of reckless driving, the youth went to court.

He was then sent to the Restigouche psychiatric hospital for an assessment that found him fit to stand trial.

However, that was avoided under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Introduced in 2003, the act applies to youth between the ages of 12 and 18and was designed to reduce the number of youth incarcerated in Canada especially those jailed for minor offences in an effort to address psychological or social needs.

The law provides for conferences that bring people together to come up with a plan that might include repairing harm to the victim and finding services for the offender.

"In a Section 19 conference, you're going to bring together the parents, the youth, the school teachers, the social workers, the mental health workers, the probation officers, police officers everybody who's really had contact with the youth and say, 'OK, here's what's going on,' and then you come up with a plan that may work, which is not taking him before the judge," explained Boss.

In December, the boy's case went to a Section 19 conference, and recommendations were made to the court.

The boy was then able to complete a post-charge diversion program and all charges were dropped.

Ramped-up service response

By November 2019, the boy was moved to a specialized placement.

That's a living plan that's approved by the province for its most complex cases of youth with severe behaviour and mental health needs.

Most often, that means a house is set aside for the care of just one child, who is supervised 24/7.

According to the province, this model is working well for the child. In his specialized placement in the Fredericton area, the boy received behavioural therapy as directed by a child psychologist. A few months ago, he was also given access to one-on-one appointments with a psychologist, and he has regular visits with a psychiatrist.

He was able to go back to school one hour per day with the help of two educational assistants.

Social workers said he hasn't committed any crimes since going into this placement.

The department said that's why he needs to stay.

Mother says her son feels unloved

The mother said it isn't right that a youth should be taken from his family to get the treatment that he needs.

She said no paid employee can ever replace a parent, and since the boy's father died in 2014, she is the only parent he's got.

She says she tries to visit her son but it's been difficult since she lost her job and her truck during the pandemic. She knows he feels abandoned.

"He's about three-quarters of the way to disassociating himself from his family," she said. "He thinks nobody loves him."

The mother said she'll oppose the minister's application for guardianship, but she has no money for a lawyer and has yet to meet one through legal aid.

The boy who burned his bridges

Recently, in another New Brunswick youth court, it took several hearings over several days to find a short-term housing solution for a youth who couldn't go home, did not belong in jail and should not have been turned out on the street.

At 16, he's facing charges of assaulting his mother, father and brother.

"He has assaulted everybody," his mother told the judge. "He almost put his little brother through a glass shower door. He punched his brother in the face. He's out of control."

The mother said her son had been seeing things and hearing things and was talking to himself for hours on end. She said he believed he could "read his brother's dreams."

A supervisor with the Department of Social Development said there was no bed available to the youth because he didn't obey the rules during previous stays in group homes.

"We place him in care, he runs," said Tanya Copp. "He doesn't co-operate. He smokes marijuana. He doesn't go to school."

Copp said the youth had been in and out of the minister's care for close to two years.

"And he's burned a lot of bridges in that time," she said.

"And in terms of the mental health piece, we don't have a mental health treatment for [him] or for any other child that's in care for that purpose. Our group homes aren't for mental health treatment."

"Where can a 16-year-old in the province of New Brunswick get this help then?" asked provincial court Judge Kelly Winchester.

The prosecutor called the situation unacceptable.

Jill Knee suggested it was time to call the minister of social development to come to the court and answer to the situation.

"It's remarkably frustrating that the option we have to consider is jail for a 16-year-old with significant mental health issues," said Knee. "The Supreme Court of Canada and the Youth Criminal Justice Act says we're not allowed to do it."

Copp told the court the department's hands were tied.

"Child protection is not mental health," she said. "Child protection is parents abusing and neglecting their children. In this case, [the youth] has assaulted his caregiver and his sibling. Is that a result of his parents abusing or neglecting him?"

Finally, the boy was found a temporary placement in an emergency care residence in Saint John.

The next step is to schedule a Section 19 conference to see if his criminal charges can be resolved through alternate measures and identify a treatment plan that could help the boy get better.

Boy who lived alone is sent away for 90 days

The practice of incarcerating youth who suffer from mental health disorders has been repeatedly condemned in New Brunswick since the 2007 death of Ashley Smith.

She died by suicide in the federal prison system after spending time incarcerated in New Brunswickand in a vicious cycle of escalating punishments that started with minor offences.

In report after report, New Brunswick youth advocates have said that jail is not the answer for youth with mental health needs.

But a 13-year-old boy did end up in jail last month.

This boy has struggled for years with unmanageable behaviour and had been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Twice he appeared by video link from the New Brunswick Youth Correctional Centre in Miramichi.

That's where he was detained after the latest altercation with his specialized placement youth-care workers.

For two years, under a plan approved by the province for its most complex cases, the boy was kept as the only child resident of a four-bedroom house, separated from members of his family because he was considered a danger to them.

Although he was receiving behavioural therapy, staff in the home had to call the police 13 times over January, February and March.

The boy now faces at least four charges of assaulting his caregivers.

At a hearing on April 7, a youth court judge ordered the boy to undergo a 30-day assessment at the Restigouche psychiatric hospital.

On May 6, another judge, who reviewed those reports, told the boy over video while he was in jail that he would have to go back to Restigouche.

This time, he'd be assessed to determine whether he could understand the consequences of his actions.

The assessment of whether he was not criminally responsible was supposed to take another 30 days, but the mother saidshe's been told it will be delayed by a month because one of the clinicians is away.

She said that means her son will have been "locked up" for 90 days.

Meanwhile, she's preparing to go to court in June.

This is another instance where the minister is seeking a guardianship order.

Affidavits filed in court by social workers and the boy's doctors will be used to make the case that he is out of control and must be in the minister's care to receive the services he needs.

The mother said the department caused harm to her son by sending him away from his family and making him feel like he'd never be free of what she calls "his private jail."

They don't count

Bruce Fitch, the minister of social development, told CBC he can't discuss any cases in his care.It's prohibited under the Family Services Act, which also protects the identities of all three boys who are mentioned in this story and the members of their family.

In general, Fitch said, the department is doing everything it can to keep youth out of the criminal justice system.

But he has no measure of the department's successes or failures in that endeavour. The department doesn't count how frequently children under its care go to jail.

There are about 1,000 youth in the minister's care at any given time in New Brunswick, but the department doesn't track any of their outcomes the bad or the good.

"Have they gone back to their family?" asked Fitch. "Have they found a forever home or have they moved on to secondary education? Have they obtained a job and are they thriving as individuals?" The minister said these are questions he cannot answer.

The minister stopped short of promising to figure out how frequently children under his care wind up in jail. While he said "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it," he didn't say the department is planning to measure this any time soon.

Improving incarceration rates

Boss, the child and youth advocate, is doing his best to keep track. He said the province has made remarkable progress when it comes to keeping youth out of detention.

In 2006, New Brunswick's Youth Correctional Centre would normally have about 40 youth in custody. By 2014, the average was more like 23.

Last week, there were 10.

Boss gives credit to the courts, the police and prosecutors for working together to divert youth away from criminal prosecution and jail sentences.

But because of gaps in health care, that is sometimes where they end up.

"All of a sudden you're left with these kids committing these offences, and then they become criminalized in the sense that they're before the criminal justice system," he said.

He's now been given the mandate to study whether the health-care system could be doing more for New Brunswick youth. Until June 7, he is welcoming public feedback on the youth advocate'swebsite.

Solution too late for 3 N.B. boys

In 2011, the youth advocate at the time, Bernard Richard, elaborated on his vision for a provincial centre of excellence for treating youth with mental health challenges a recommendation first made in 2008.

The centre would provide residential care so that children would no longer be sent to prisons or adult psychiatric hospitals.

It would also foster creativity and innovation, bringing experts together to collaborate on ideas for supporting youth in their communities.

In 2019, the province halted construction on a centre in Campbellton and announced a new build in Moncton instead.

That has yet to materialize.

Three months ago, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard, released her five-year mental health and addictions plan, promising a youth centre would finally open in 2024.

That's too late for many families who are struggling now.

All three boys in this story will be past the age of 18 and beyond the point where such services could have an impact on their growth and development into early adulthood.