JHR Weekly Right Watch
Bill C-10: Incarcerating the Mentally Ill
Stephen Harper’s proposed blanket crime legislation inexcusably ignores a vulnerable portion of our population.
Bill C-10, otherwise known as the Omnibus Crime Bill or The Safer Streets and Communities Act, fails to address the mistreatment of mentally ill criminals. Instead, the legislation aims to put more people in prison.Imprisoning people does not reform them—it institutionalizes them, and it makes them more likely to commit another crime.
A study by The Canadian Population Health Initiative found a strong link between the mental health of young people and their relationships to their families and communities. It also showed that negative mental health is directly correlated to delinquent behavior.
The CPHI recommends promoting community-building programs as a method of preventing crime.
Lawyers and criminologists across the country have also criticized Bill C-10 for its archaic ideas that have already been tested and rejected by our neighbours to the south.
The Canadian Bar Association’s Submission on Bill C-10 says, “many of the positive reforms of the past 30 years, reforms that have led to the humanizing of Canada’s criminal justice system […] would be imperiled with the passage of the Omnibus Bill.”
The CBA suggests finding better ways to treat the mentally ill.
Despite these warnings, the Conservative Government is rushing the bill through Parliament. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson ignored questions Dec. 1 about how the bill would deal with the mentally ill, according to the Canadian Press.
The Conservatives also voted down an amendment that would have allowed judges to take into consideration mental illness when handing down mandatory minimum sentences.
In The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris uses the example of the psychopath to argue for prison reform. According to Harris, many serious offenders are psychopaths. He says neurological studies done on psychopaths show that their brains have deficits in the regions that control things like impulsivity and self-control. If we really want
to make Canada’s streets safer, we must invest money in research to find out why people commit crimes.
We need to build institutions specifically designed to care for and treat mental illness.
Canada already has a poor record for the treatment of mentally ill criminals.
In 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith committed suicide while in Corrections’ custody. She had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
Last year the CBC’s The Fifth Estate aired an eye-opening episode entitled “Behind the Wall” that revealed what really happened to her.
In the video, Smith strangles herself to death while two guards watch and do nothing. Smith’s story sheds light on the problems with how we treat mentally ill prisoners.
The New Brunswick Ombudsman also investigated her death, concluding in another report that this problem is systemic.
Harper wants to build larger prisons and implement tougher sentences, which leads to the incarceration of more mentally ill people and does nothing to address the problem raised by CBA, the New Brunswick Ombudsman and many others.
We need to treat these prisoners like sick people, not animals. If Harper’s bill proposed that we put money towards neurological research, better mental health facilities and social programs that promote individual well being within society, we could call it progressive.
As it stands, Harper is actually reversing the progressive efforts of previous governments—efforts that have already failed.
The Conservatives’ plan for making our streets safer will actually increase crime and allow more mentally ill people slip through the cracks and into incarceration.
It must not pass.
Watch the full Fifth Estate documentary, Behind The Wall here.
