The young man convicted of manslaughter in the death of Brandy Vittrekwa has been granted less restrictive custody conditions.

On Friday afternoon, Judge Peter Chisholm authorized the now 18-year-old, whose identity is protected from publication as a youth offender, to graduate from secure to open custody.

He noted the “astounding progress” the young offender has made and the importance of his reintegration into the community.

Lessening custody restrictions, Chisholm added, will give him the best chance at contributing to society and not reoffending.

“I know that is not going to satisfy people,” Chisholm said.

In December 2014, Vittrekwa, 17, was found dead on a walking trail in the McIntyre subdivision.

A year later, the young man who had beaten her unconscious and left her in the cold without a coat pled guilty to manslaughter.

He was sentenced in June 2016 to three years’ incarceration, the maximum sentence allowed for youth.

There are five months remaining until he will be under conditional supervision in the community.

Crown prosecutor Noel Sinclair had argued against granting the young offender open custody. He noted Vittrekwa’s family opposes the change.

The court heard about the impact the sentence and Vittrekwa’s death have had in a letter from her grandmother, Mary Jane Moses, read aloud by a representative from the territorial victim’s services branch.

Moses said she believes the sentence for her granddaughter’s death was too lenient.

“Justice was not served,” she said.

“Brandy did not get justice.”

Vittrekwa “was a blessing when she was born, a shining light to everyone around us,” Moses said.

She noted that she helped to raise her granddaughter and taught her about the Gwich’in way of life and culture.

When she was brutally taken, Moses said, it left an emptiness.

“As a family, we were so devastated and shocked that this could be happening,” she said. “To reflect back on this now, it still hurts so bad.”

Dealing with the senseless loss will be a lifelong healing journey, she added, helped by the outpouring of love and support the family has received.

Sinclair told the court Vittrekwa’s family members were surprised to learn the young man is already not exclusively confined to the Young Offenders Facility on Range Road.

“There has been very little information provided to the family,” he said.

Under the Victims of Crime Act, Sinclair noted, the director of juvenile justice is required to provide victims’ families with information about the terms of an offender’s custody or supervision and when there is a reduction in that supervision.

Going forward, Sinclair said, reintegration leave should be designed in a way that is respectful to Vittrekwa’s family.

The young man’s case worker noted the RCMP are informed whenever reintegration leaves take place, and that the young offender is not free to roam in the community.

These leaves are very restricted and under escort, he explained. They include attending therapy and very part-time employment.

Defence lawyer Melissa Atkinson reminded the court that provisions under the Youth Justice Act are meant to be separate and unique from those for adult offenders.

The young offender’s sentence takes a different approach to justice, Atkinson said, with a case management approach that includes a clinical psychologist.

It is also meant not only to deter criminal behaviour but to rehabilitate the offender and give him the tools and resources to succeed, she added.

“It is often times difficult to understand that,” she said.

Atkinson also noted it is important not to set the young man up to fail and to break the cycle of overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system.

She added this is the third review of his custody conditions.

Chisholm noted it was difficult to decide whether to grant open custody, and that he has sympathy for Vittrekwa’s family.

“There really is no way to right this wrong, there is no way to make things fully as they were,” he said.

The judge added it is unfortunate that there hasn’t been much communication with the family, which may have helped.

From the beginning, Chisholm explained, the sentence was intended to have four stages, including reintegration after intensive therapy.

Moving from secure to open custody, he said, gives the young man the chance to be more comfortable and practise life skills.

Chisholm also noted the young offender is receiving very specialized treatment and has made an incredible change of direction in his life.

He added that taking offenders who have become institutionalized and placing them back in the community leaves them little to no chance of succeeding.

It will be “rubber meeting the road,” Chisholm said, when the young man does enter back into the community.

This will be the most difficult part of the sentence, where the young man will have to stay away from his old friends and abstain from alcohol.

He has a long road ahead of him, Chisholm told the young man, and a responsibility to live life to the fullest in a way that will help others.

“I think that’s part of the debt you owe to society,” he said.

An additional review of custody conditions and an updated risk assessment has been set for sometime early this spring.