Avril Colenutt

This document summarizes the proceedings and recommendations of a national forum that brought together experts in education, social services, and the justice system to encourage action on the issue of literacy for youth in conflict with the law. Teachers, politicians, police, parole officers, students, community workers, and volunteers attended conferences held concurrently in cities around Canada on June 5, 2012.

This literature review provides a demographic snapshot of literacy challenges for youth in conflict with the law in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It also includes a review of available literacy programming and research on the intersection of youth, justice and literacy in those three countries.

The goal of this paper is to encourage critical discussion and future planning for effective and measurable literacy programming for youth in conflict with the law in Canada.

The authors note that literacy is critical to both the reduction and prevention of criminal involvement for young people, and describe their paper as a call to action for coordinated services and programming for youth, before, during or after incarceration.