Citation

Longstaffe SE, Chudley A, Harvie MK, Brown T, Neault D, Markesteyn TJ. Biochem. Cell Biol. 2018; 96(2): 260-266.

Affiliation

Manitoba Youth Corrections, Manitoba Youth Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ; trevor.markesteyn@gov.mb.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, National Research Council of Canada, Publisher Canadian Science Publishing)

DOI

10.1139/bcb-2017-0078

PMID

28977753

Abstract

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) describes a constellation of physical, cognitive, neurologic and behavioral impairments resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol. FASD is recognized as being one of the largest causes of preventable brain injury in children. There had long been concerns that some youth in conflict with the law may be affected with FASD given repetitive patterns of offending and apparent lack of understanding of consequences of their actions. In 2004 funding was received from Justice Canada for a pilot project with a cross departmental steering committee working together to determine a best way of working across systems to provide FASD assessments to these youth. It was recognized that provision of timely FASD assessments would allow the Court to provide more meaningful sentences taking into account the youth's strengths and challenges and enhance the chances of decreased recidivism and increase chances of rehabilitation. This paper describes the basic science around FASD and its' diagnosis, provides a history of the Manitoba FASD Youth Justice Program and reports on legal issues, structure, statistics, accomplishments and ongoing future challenges.

Language: en