Section 98 — Youth Criminal Justice Act: Application for continuation of custody

Within a reasonable time before the expiry of the custodial portion of a young person’s youth sentence, the Attorney General or the provincial director may apply to the youth justice court for an order that the young person remain in custody for a period not exceeding the remainder of the youth sentence. If the hearing for an application under subsection (1) cannot be completed before the expiry of the custodial portion of the youth sentence, the court may order that the young person remain in custody pending the determination of the application if the court is satisfied that the application was made in a reasonable time, having regard to all the circumstances, and that there are compelling reasons for keeping the young person in custody. The youth justice court may, after giving both parties and a parent of the young person an opportunity to be heard, order that a young person remain in custody for a period not exceeding the remainder of the youth sentence, if it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the young person is likely to commit a serious violent offence before the expiry of the youth sentence he or she is then serving; and the conditions that would be imposed on the young person if he or she were to serve a portion of the youth sentence in the community would not be adequate to prevent the commission of the offence. For the purpose of determining an application under subsection (1), the youth justice court shall take into consideration any factor that is relevant to the case of the young person, including evidence of a pattern of persistent violent behaviour and, in particular, the number of offences committed by the young person that caused physical or psychological harm to any other person, the young person’s difficulties in controlling violent impulses to the point of endangering the safety of any other person, the use of weapons in the commission of any offence, explicit threats of violence, behaviour of a brutal nature associated with the commission of any offence, and a substantial degree of indifference on the part of the young person as to the reasonably foreseeable consequences, to other persons, of the young person’s behaviour; psychiatric or psychological evidence that a physical or mental illness or disorder of the young person is of such a nature that the young person is likely to commit, before the expiry of the youth sentence the young person is then serving, a serious violent offence; reliable information that satisfies the youth justice court that the young person is planning to commit, before the expiry of the youth sentence the young person is then serving, a serious violent offence; the availability of supervision programs in the community that would offer adequate protection to the public from the risk that the young person might otherwise present until the expiry of the youth sentence the young person is then serving; whether the young person is more likely to reoffend if he or she serves his or her youth sentence entirely in custody without the benefits of serving a portion of the youth sentence in the community under supervision; and evidence of a pattern of committing violent offences while he or she was serving a portion of a youth sentence in the community under supervision.