Finding hope in the justice system
In Community Treatment Court, people with mental health and addiction issues get help instead of jail time. Should Hamilton adopt the same model as Halton? Susan Clairmont explores the issue
Most courts offer justice. This one also offers hope.
COURTROOM 13 looks like any other in Burlington’s criminal courthouse. But through that door, on alternate Fridays, exists a court like no other in Halton.
The Crown and defence lawyers cheerfully greet offenders by name. Social workers mingle with probation officers. Friends and family of the accused look pleased.
And when Justice Stephen Brown enters, nobody stands.
Elsewhere this would be disrespectful. Here, it indicates Brown’s deep respect for the accused. He wants to make them comfortable. He cares. Welcome to Community Treatment Court (CTC), where those with mental health and addiction issues come to get well and stay out of jail.
“I don’t want to just put people away in jail, unless I have to, to protect the public,” says Brown, who has led this specialized court since it began five years ago. It is personal for him. He has family with mental health challenges. “We see absolute transformations of people. But it’s not easy on them … They have to split open their lives.”
“One hundred per cent, we absolutely need mental health court.” JAIME STEPHENSON PRESIDENT, HAMILTON CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION “The family tries all sorts of different things. Everything breaks down over time. Families burn out. They give up.” JOE CHROLAVICIUS DEFENCE LAWYER “But with all these supports in place, what problem are we trying to address?” TODD NORMAN HAMILTON CROWN ATTORNEY There is virtually no empirical data regarding the effectiveness of MHCs. The few studies are small and largely American.
ONE
MAN was arrested for banging on the wrong door late at night, terrifying the woman who lived there. He spent a year in Brown’s court getting treatment.
“He’s the nicest guy,” the judge says. “I wish that woman could see his hard work. His remorse.”
THOUGH
WE HAVE a muchpraised yet unfunded Drug Treatment Court (DTC) — which by virtue of duel diagnoses sees many offenders with mental health issues — there is no CTC like Halton has, nor a separate Mental Health Court (MHC) in Hamilton. There are 23 Mental Health Courts in Ontario.
As society talks more openly about mental health and the legal community grapples with increased offenders with mental health challenges, the local buzz about the merits of a specialized court has reached a crescendo. Does Hamilton need a MHC? While all major stakeholders are willing to have the discussion, some wholeheartedly believe a MHC is overdue here, while others say it would take hard evidence and a government commitment of resources to be convinced.
Each MHC is tailored to its community. Some, like Halton, are combined with DTC and a guilty plea is mandatory. Toronto has psychiatrists right in the courtroom to do assessments. Many rely heavily on Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) workers. Some withdraw charges upon graduation.
In each jurisdiction the objective is the same: to give non-violent offenders an opportunity to treat the mental illness that led to their offence rather than serve time in jail.
Generally, offenders are eligible if they have been charged with non-violent crimes that don’t involve sexual assault or impaired driving.
Violent offenders or those found Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) are not admitted into MHC. Low-level charges such as simple assault, mischief and theft are frequently seen. With regular court, mentally ill offenders are apt to serve short jail sentences without much, if any, treatment. Once out, they often don’t have housing, medical intervention or family support. That puts them in the precarious position of breaching court orders or of reoffending. So the cycle begins again. The aim of MHC is to stop that revolving door.
“One hundred per cent, we absolutely need mental health court,” says Jaime Stephenson, president of the Hamilton Criminal Lawyers Association. People with mental illness are “prevalent” in Hamilton’s courts.
Every day in the Hamilton courthouse there are accused showing signs of mental illness. They often
That trend began in the late 1950s with deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. Now, families sometimes resort to having loved ones arrested in the hope of getting them help.
rant loudly and incoherently. Some are brought in wearing hockey helmets for their own protection.
Stephenson would like to see our DTC expand into a CTC to include mental health cases. The infrastructure is already in place for the specialized court, and so would — in theory — make it easier to get off the ground.
“It’s about using resources we have for the DTC to full capacity.” But also, many clients overlap. “A lot of mental health is directly related to drug use,” Stephenson says. Drugs are used by clients “to try to deal with their mental health issues” or heavy drug users “end up with drug-induced psychosis.”
Some lawyers don’t want to take on mentally ill clients. Their cases are complicated and time consuming. Legal aid accounts for that with extra funding for mental health cases, but a lawyer needs special training to qualify for that funding.
Finding funding for a Hamilton MHC will be a challenge, Stephenson admits.
“Specialized courts require specialized resources,” she says. “And we’re already short on judges.”
HALF
OF DEFENCE lawyer Joe Chrolavicius’s clients have mental health issues. He is a champion for their cases, and is considered one of the best by his colleagues.
He credits his keen interest to his older sister Kristina. “She was a bit of a lost soul.” When Kristina was 18, he drove her to North Bay for nursing school. Soon, he had to bring her back.
Kristina was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was a troubled but gentle soul, who lived every day thinking her death was imminent.
“She made it to the age of 53,” says Chrolavicius. “She eventually decided she wanted to die and she stopped eating. Had she been a healthy girl, I may not be in this line of work.”
Years ago, when CMHA first put workers in Hamilton’s courthouse, Chrolavicius stepped up to represent people they identified as having special needs. He educated himself on the Legal Aid Act, NCR cases, the Mental Health Act and Community Treatment Orders.
Many of his clients don’t have support from their families.
“The family tries all sorts of different things,” he says. “Everything breaks down over time. Families burn out. They give up.” He becomes their sole advocate.
One client was arrested while Chrolavicius was on holiday. The man was so upset his trusted lawyer wasn’t there in court he smashed the glass in the prisoner’s box.
Chrolavicius says a combined MHC and DTC would fit the needs of many of his clients, who he sometimes can’t deal with in a meaningful way after their arrest until “the drugs are out of their system and they’ve eaten and slept.”
He does worry that combining specialized courts could set some clients up for failure if they’re unable to deal with their addiction and mental health issues at the same time.
That is a concern shared by Ruth Greenspan, executive director of the John Howard Society of Hamilton.
“Drug court isn’t for everybody,” she says, while acknowledging the Hamilton DTC has changed many lives for the better.
Greenspan says most of their clients have some mental health issue, including addiction and fetal alcohol syndrome. Her staff says Hamilton may have more need for a MHC than Halton, since those with severe issues usually end up here because it is a bigger city with more shelters.
“Jail doesn’t help from a treatment standpoint,” Greenspan says, adding John Howard wants a place at the table to discuss a MHC for Hamilton.
Already there are three CMHA workers at the John Sopinka Courthouse every morning in Hamilton to provide support to adults in the criminal justice system.
Jill Pollock, case manager of the CMHA’s Mental Health Court Support Services, explains there is a diversion program that provides six months of treatment for clients arrested for low-level non-violent and non-domestic offences. If the client successfully completes the program, charges are withdrawn.
Staff acts on referrals from lawyers or family. They meet with people in custody, assist with bail plans, offer counselling appointments, find space in shelters and lodging homes.
In 2016, Mental Health Court Support Services had 767 unique clients, with 29 new clients each month. There are another 150 or so repeat clients each month.
“It can be very overwhelming for these individuals to navigate the system,” says Pollock. “There’s a lot of stigma and, for some people, shame.”
Pollock praises Hamilton for work it already does in this area, saying “in our legal community everyone tries to work collaboratively … We all have a responsibility.”
HAMILTON’S CROWN
office is dedicated to the “different and specific needs” of the mentally ill, says Crown attorney Todd Norman.
“We make real efforts to treat people with mental illness compassionately, with public safety in mind.”
There are already programs to make that happen, he says, citing police pre-charge diversion, the CMHA diversion program and DTC, which applies “if addiction is considered a mental illness.”
Of Hamilton’s 26 Crowns, nine — including Norman — have training allowing them to do Ontario Review Board hearings.
“We should always be looking for better ways to deal with people with mental illness,” says Norman. “But with all these supports in place, what problem are we trying to address?”
The same question is posed by Hamilton Police Service. Front-line officers are tasked with dealing with people with mental health issues due to the so-called “criminalization of mental illness.”
That trend began in the late 1950s with deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. Now, families sometimes resort to having loved ones arrested in the hope of getting them help.
Hamilton police are leaders in pre-charge diversion programs that keep the mentally ill from being arrested in the first place. There is the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (which teams up a mental health clinician and plainclothes officer in an unmarked vehicle), the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (mental health clinician and uniformed officer in marked patrol vehicle) and Social Navigation Program (paramedic, police officer in an EMS truck).
The programs aim to reduce stigma, arrest rates and time at hospital, says Supt. Nancy Goodes-Ritchie.
She says police want to be part of a discussion on MHC, but “we need to have some kind of feasibility study.”
“Are there gaps that could be filled through mental health court?”
There is virtually no empirical data regarding the effectiveness of MHCs. The few studies are small and largely American. About 25 per cent of male federal inmates have an identified mental health issue, according to the Office of the Correctional Investigator. That doubles for women.
Justice Fred Campling, administrative judge for Hamilton, calls for a proper study. “I need to be convinced that we need a specialized court,” he says. “I’m open minded to that, but it hasn’t been demonstrated to me.”
Campling praises DTC, the work CMHA does in the courthouse, the various police programs and the St. Joseph’s hospital forensic psychiatry unit. And he agrees there are many mentally ill people in the Hamilton criminal court system.
“I just haven’t decided if we need a specialized court or not. I think we do have more resources in that area already than most communities.”
The other issue Campling is alltoo aware of is the new precedent regarding trial delays that comes from the R vs. Jordan decision. Now, provincial court cases shouldn’t take longer than 18 months to get to trial and Superior Court cases have 30 months.
Those timelines are putting pressure on Hamilton judges, already short-handed thanks to the “de-assignment” of Justice Bernd Zabel, who wore a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat in his courtroom.
“We are struggling to get people tried with the Jordan directive,” says Campling. “We have to focus on core business. We can’t just allow specialty courts to pop up willy-nilly. We are not going to have specialty courts unless they’re absolutely justified.”
In Halton, Justice Brown agrees there aren’t statistics available to show the success of courts like his.
But there are stories. Some were told last November when graduates came back for a reunion.
“When I first came to treatment court, I was shattered,” shared a graduate named Ekta. “This was the lowest point of my life. I was disappointed with myself, guilt-ridden, controlled by fears and anxiety. And no court could punish me more than I punished myself.”
Now she is well. And staying out of trouble. “The next time you may get arrested and not necessarily end up in a treatment court. And that could devastate your life,” she said.
“This time, they’re offering you help. And hope.”