Lack of supports putting kids in care at risk of brushes with the law, people involved say

A lack of social supports in Manitoba is helping drive the province's especially high number of youth in care — and once children are there that same lack of resources puts them at a higher risk of getting in trouble with the law, people familiar with the system say.

The issue was again thrust into the spotlight earlier this week when Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth at a news conference announced a string of violent and random robberies that he took the rare step of saying appear to have been carried out mainly by youth living in group or foster homes.

Smyth's comments were criticized in part by advocates who said while the police chief's intentions were likely positive, his words could stigmatize the many among the roughly 9,000 kids in care in Manitoba who aren't committing violent crimes.

His comments came just a few months after an in-care 14-year-old girl was stabbed to death by another youth in downtown Winnipeg. A day before she died, a judge condemned the child welfare system for leaving the vulnerable girl without the housing support she needed.

Marni Brownell, a professor in the University of Manitoba's Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, says  the link between kids in care and their risk of involvement in the justice system has been clearly established — including in a 2020 report she co-authored that found Manitoba children and youth in care were more likely to have been accused of a crime than to have finished high school. 

Brownell says that's indicative of a lack of resources for youth in the child welfare system. But more importantly, she said, it raises questions about "whether there are too many kids being brought into care in the first place" in Manitoba, which has the highest rate of children in care in the country.

"We really have to start to wonder why in Manitoba do we take so many kids into care? And often … high rates of children in care are an indication that the kinds of supports and services that families facing challenges need, you know, they're just not there," Brownell said, adding issues including poverty, addictions and housing issues often contribute to kids being apprehended.

While incidents like the ones the police chief addressed this week are often what sparks a reaction from the public, Brownell says what's really needed is a hard look at what landed those kids there to begin with.

"Really, what we need to be doing is investing in prevention: preventing kids from going into care, providing supports to families who are facing challenges," she said.

"And it's really tough to do because it's — you know, it can be a huge investment and it takes a while to see the outcomes of that investment. But if we just keep reacting, things don't change."

Brandi Delaine says she's seen the increase in violent crime among youth in Winnipeg up close as a manager of the West End 24 Hour Safe Space for Youth, where management has had to hire security due to violent incidents at and near the site.

But as a manager of that space, Delaine says she also works with the kinds of kids who end up getting involved in crime, and she knows that, most times, they're just looking for somewhere they feel they belong, even if that's in a situation that ends up being dangerous for them.

"These youth are being taken away very young and being put into foster care. And they're being bounced around like luggage, just not belonging in any one home," she said.

"They don't feel like they have anywhere to go. I feel like the system is failing them right now."