Winnipeg court is trying to fix how it handles its youngest offenders | More on the story [Video]

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/new-youth-intake-court-winnipeg-1.7177358

The charge before the court was assault, the accused a 14-year-old girl in black-and-white Nikes. It was her first time being charged with a crime, and she felt her nerves bubble up inside her as she walked through the heavy wooden doors into a courtroom on the fourth floor of Winnipeg’s towering law courts building. The only time she’d seen something like this was in the movies.

She grabbed a seat near the back and watched as the room filled up with other young people like her, more and more filing in until the gallery in Courtroom 402 on the March Monday morning was a sea of basketball shoes and sweatpants, high-tops and jeans.

Some, like her, were there with a social worker. Others were with their families, younger siblings clutching their mothers’ hands. Some were completely alone.

“Order, all rise,” the clerk said, and the young faces in the room snapped forward to see Manitoba provincial court Associate Chief Judge Lee Ann Martin enter in a black judicial robe, taking a seat at the front of the courtroom as lawyers in suits stood waiting.

The girl’s case was number 12 on the docket, and as she listened for her name to be called she wondered what was going to happen to her after what she’d done.