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| Diverting the Mentally Ill From Canadian Jails |
| By CBC Ottawa |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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Police in Kingston, Ontario have joined a coalition of agencies trying to keep people with mental illnesses out of jail. The Human Services and Justice Network is a first for Ontario. It swings into action as soon as someone with a mental disorder commits a minor crime. OPP Staff-Sgt. Glen Fowler says officers have traditionally had few options when dealing with a mentally ill person at the scene of a minor crime. 'That person would just be arrested, [and] taken either by ambulance or by cruiser to a hospital facility,' says Fowler. An estimated 600 mentally ill people in Kingston get in trouble with the law every year. Fowler's detachment is one of 20 agencies involved in the network. He says police can now contact the network's REACT team, a group that includes mental health workers. 'In most cases they already know that person and they can assess what can be done to get the person back, say, on their medication,' says Fowler. The coalition also includes representatives from Corrections Canada, the Crown attorney's office and local hospitals. Without intervention, things can quickly go wrong for mentally ill patients, says Vicky Huehn, who heads up a mental health agency. 'They end up getting records; they end up going off to detention centres where they don't get any help,' she says. 'They put in their time and come back out on the street and they're probably going to re-offend. They probably learned some things from other inmates that really aren't very helpful towards their reintegration into society.' Huehn says the network is successful because members get involved at the moment a real situation happens out on the street. |
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