INMATES NEED BETTER CARE

When it’s said that the system failed Marlene Carter — who suffers from a severe mental disorder that causes her to slam her head until blood’s drawn — it’s more than just a cliche or the widest possible distribution of responsibility.

Canada does not have an appropriate facility to treat mentally ill female inmates — a straightforward truth that is astonishing, in this day and age, for such a wealthy nation. While there are provincial facilities that provide services via contract, and Saskatoon’s Regional Psychiatric Centre treats the most serious cases held in the federal prison system, the reality, former federal correctional investigator Howard Sapers told the Ottawa Citizen, is that “there are just not enough resources and the resources that are available are inadequate to meet the needs of some of the very, very ill and complex cases.”

At a time when society’s consciousness of mental illness is rising, it’s obvious that corresponding increases in the level of services offered are necessary.

But how to do it?

Mark Henick of the Canadian Mental Health Association is blunt in his assessment, saying we need to avoid building mental health prisons. We should find treatment for people before — and after — they end up in prison or jail … except that we don’t have enough services elsewhere at the moment.

So, it’s a conundrum.

“The prison system is used as a proxy mental health system, ever since the closure of in-patient facilities, largely through the ’60s and ’70s, there weren’t adequate community resources provided,” Henick says.

The data bear that out; mental health issues within the prison system are found at double to triple the rate in the rest of society. The Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada says 14 per cent of federal inmates have serious mental health issues.

So, what is it that’s needed? A modern-day asylum, clearly, doesn’t seem like the solution. There are, however, other steps that can be taken. It’s plain that better access to care over one’s life — whether counsellors, psychotherapists or psychiatrists — will make a difference.

Second, police aren’t mental health professionals, nor are prison guards, nor are judges. Were they to receive significant training, it would make a major difference, and, says Henick, make their jobs easier.

These are but two ways forward. Absent a proper care facility for inmates, the answers to this problem are the same as the answers to mental health care problems in society generally.

It’s just that we’ve got to find the will to do it.