This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan:

In response to criticism from mayors and others, a report entitled A Rapid Investigation into Repeat Offending and Random Stranger Violence in British Columbia was prepared.

The authors of the report, a retired deputy police chief, and an academic, found that in 2021, while there had been a 7.55% reduction in the non-violent crime severity index in British Columbia, there had been a 4.32% increase in the violent crime serenity index.

Part of this was the result of apparently random assault of strangers. In Vancouver, offences of this kind increased by 35% in 2021.

The report concluded that most suspects in these offences had been apprehended previously under the Mental Health Act.

The Mental Health Act permits people to be apprehended and held for involuntary mental health treatment when someone is determined by doctors to be a danger to themselves or others. Predicting this is, of course, difficult and available resources are inadequate. 

The report explains some of the history of treatment for people with mental illness in British Columbia. Between 1913 and 2012 there was a facility called Riverview Hospital, located in Coquitlam. It provided treatment for people with mental illness in a secure setting. By 1956, there were 4,300 patients living at Riverview.

Riverview was closed in 2012 and the theory was that psychiatric treatment would become “community based”.

Unfortunately, there have not been sufficient resources provided for community based psychiatric care.

As a result, people with serious mental illness and, frequently, drug additions have ended up homeless or living in temporary shelters.

In 2017 BC Corrections concluded that 75% of people admitted to provincial jails had a mental illness and or a substance use disorder.

The report concluded that the property and violent crime committed by people who are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction could not be meaningfully addressed by longer jail sentences. They concluded that while people who are in jail for longer would prevent them from committing crimes while they are incarcerated, this would only result in a potential “small gain” because the people would eventually be released with the same mental health challenges.

Even if was effective, there is insufficient capacity in jail. All 10 provincial jails in British Columbia had an average of 2,500 prisoners in 2021.

This is approximately the number of people who died of drug overdoses in the same year: 2,224.

In 1956, when there were 4,300 patients in River View, the population of BC was less than 1.4 million. As of 2022, the population is more than 5.2 million.

Many of the recommendations in the report involve the urgent need for additional treatment capacity for people with mental illness and drug addiction. These include the need for Crisis Response and Stabilization Centres, where people could receive immediate help. Such facilities would allow people to walk in for help without long waiting periods. They would also provide the police or paramedics somewhere to take people for immediate help.

The report also suggests that assistance for people on a voluntary basis is created, consideration should also be given to a system of involuntary treatment.

An interesting submission by the BC First Nations Justice Council was released, along with the main report. That submission is critical of some of the report’s recommendations and points out the massive overrepresentation of indigenous people in the justice system, and the systemic reasons for this.

Follow this link for links to the report and legislation discussed.