Courtroom 8 at the Elgin Street courthouse opened in early 2007 and runs three days a week. It has offered mental health services and rehabilitation to those in need who pass through the justice system.
A woman pleads with the judge as she is ushered into the prisoner’s box in courtroom 8.
“Please judge, please. I can’t be in jail that long!” Sobbing into her hands, she muffles her cries.
Police arrested this woman six times on charges of mischief and breaching probation. She lives in shelters. She panhandles. She’s addicted to crack cocaine.
She also suffers from schizophrenia.
“Your lawyer’s going to get you out as soon as possible . . . just try to stay calm, okay?” Justice Lise Maisonneuve assures her.
Not the kind of comment you might expect from a judge. But, this is not your regular courtroom.
Three days a week, this is Ottawa’s mental health court.
Cases heard here have been pulled from the mainstream so that mental health can be front and centre.
Maisonneuve said later in an interview that before the mental health court was established in early 2007, a woman like the one who appeared before her would have remained in jail – potentially for weeks – awaiting a mental fitness assessment.
Maisonneuve said the mentally ill were often “lost in the shuffle” because there was no system to address their special needs.
She said the regular court system simply didn’t have the resources to deal with such cases – or the time to try and assess how medical attention could get people out of the legal system.
The court considers the results of mental fitness and criminal responsibility assessments conducted by doctors from the Royal Ottawa Hospital and looks at the offender’s criminal history before deciding on a sentence.
And those sentences usually include psychiatric treatment.
While this court doesn’t conduct trials for serious crimes – such as murder, assault or sexual offences – it can suggest treatment for mentally ill people charged with such offences.
Crown attorney Donna Eastwood said it’s important to recognize that mental illness can often be the trigger that leads to criminal behaviour.
“If you don’t fix the problem that causes the crime, then the individual will commit further crimes,” she said.
The court aims to ensure that people who develop mental illness stay out of the criminal justice system once they are treated, said defence lawyer Heather Perkins-McVey, who frequently represents clients in mental health court.
“There may be a period of time where there is some reoffending until they’re properly medicated, connected with psychiatry, connected with some outreach services in the community,” Perkins-McVey said. “Once they find housing, once they get
properly connected, we often don’t see them back.”
She added that drug addictions are common among mentally-ill offenders, who sometimes use drugs as a way of “quieting the voices.” In these cases, the court provides referrals to addiction services.
In less than two years, the court has already many success stories, said Perkins-McVey.
She relayed the story of one man who had a complex delusional belief system involving King John and the Magna Carta.
“He refused to take medication. At one point I think he had 30 charges in the mental health court,” she said.
After going to the hospital, a changed man returned to court.
“I didn’t recognize him,” Perkins-McVey said. “He had shaved his beard, cut his hair. He looked like a model, rather than the sort of unkempt, homeless person that he previously had been.”
The court set the man up with the Canadian Mental Health Association. He got a part-time job, housing and disability benefits, and completed a rehabilitation program.
“He’s the poster boy of what can be done with the right support network,” Perkins-McVey said.
Maisonneuve attributes the court’s success to a team approach to legal and community support.
“It’s very rewarding to see the results when the right team has been placed together,” she said.
“That person is now seeing a brighter future than they were when they first came in . . . all of a sudden they come back before you and they are a completely changed person.”