WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s children’s advocate says kids in the care of social services are being kept in jail long after they should be released because there is nowhere else to put them.
Darlene MacDonald has received calls from judges who want to release youths from police custody but can’t because they don’t have anywhere to go, she said.
Judges have said they don’t want to see youth put up in hotels, so the children remain in jail until Child and Family Services can find somewhere for them to stay, MacDonald said.
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MacDonald recently visited Manitoba’s youth detention centre and was distressed by the stories of children there, she said.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said he has raised the issue with Manitoba’s attorney general and family services minister, but nothing is being done.
Vulnerable kids are caught up in the justice system unnecessarily rather than being in a loving, nurturing home, Nepinak said.
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