Our criminal system is full of the mentally ill. Most (not all, but most) people before the criminal courts have some element of mental instability. With the 'tough on crime' policies continuing to come into force we will see more and more of the mentally unwell in the criminal system.
Now, I recognise that separation for society is necessary for some mentally unstable people. Society must be protected. But harsh prison conditions and lack of treatment merely create new problems.
Prison is not the place for treatment of mental illness.
Indeed, where crime is a result of mental illness the very concepts the criminal justice system relies on -- punishment of rational actors who did wrong, knowingly, and for rational if selfish reasons -- fail. Deterrence of a non-rational actor doesn't work.
More Canadians with mental health issues occupy prison cells than mental health facilities. Most of these serve their sentences in isolation, which – not surprisingly – often exacerbates their conditions. Treatment is limited and such programmes as exist have long waiting lines for admission.
Ashley Smith was a deeply troubled person whose offences were trifles.
She was in custody and should not have been -- it may well be she should have been hospitalised.
But she was in prison.
And in Canada a young woman guilty of minor property offences was "forcibly injected with tranquilizers and restrained with duct tape".
That's just wrong.
That's not a just criminal law system.
"Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me"
Court overturns coroner ruling at Ashley Smith inquest
Diana Zlomislic
Staff Reporter
Graphic prison videos showing Ashley Smith forcibly injected with tranquilizers and restrained with duct tape may be played at inquest into the teen's death, a court has ruled.
Smith's family won an important legal battle Thursday that overturned a ruling by coroner Dr. Bonita Porter. A panel of Divisional Court judges ruled that Porter erred in refusing to compel the federal prison service to turn over the tapes.
"It is difficult to understand why the coroner would conclude that the videos are irrelevant to the subject matter of the inquest given the scope of the inquest as she herself has defined it," the court decision states.
4 comments:
This is what I'd expect back home. But I come from Iran. And there's a reason I left. I wonder if she would have been treated the same if she were a boy and not a girl? Unruly girls are often treated worse than boys.
I recall the uproar when this prison was being built. The government refused to take local residents seriously with their concerns.
There have been a rash of problems including the odd strike. Most people fimiliar with the facility are not surprised with these developments.
The worst tragedy of all is that the prison was supposed to "modernize" the women's prison system to give inmates dignity etc. The people running it have long since moved on with huge salaries and fat pensions only to be replaced with new ones who'll do the same. No one cared then and it is too late now to complain.
This is a conversation that should have taken place 20 years ago.
"Our criminal system is full of the mentally ill. Most (not all, but most) people before the criminal courts have some element of mental instability."
Morton.
Whoever gave you those statistics are DEAD WRONG.
I've done 5 years in the PEN.
Collin's Bay for 2. 2Block.
Beaver Creek for 3. Unit 2.
There are very few mentally ill people in prison.
There are a bunch who like to PRETEND they are ill so they get free medications to snort, inject or sell.
I have lived with over 50 inmates over my lifetime in cells and not one was mentally ill other than depressed about their current situation.
When you talk about statistics you need to rely on real world experience.
Not what you were taught at law school.
The only concern the people in prison have is when they're getting out.
That's it.
Quit spreading bullshit about the inside please.
You have never been inside.
Anon,
E-mail me off-line if you like. I'd be very glad to get more of your insights.
j
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