Poor fit for jail but stuck in the system

Each time Josie appears before the psychologists they start from scratch: looking over her past, assessing her mental abilities, and checking whether she understands the criminal charges she faces.

In July, at the Auckland women’s prison, the 24-year-old seemed hazy on her personal details. She couldn’t recall her full name correctly. But she was able to tell the prison forensic team: ‘‘I have been in prison before.’’ The report concluded she was unlikely to be found fit to stand trial.

The same conclusion had already been reached on another matter last year but here was Josie (not her real name) in the criminal justice system again.

Each time she faces new charges, a new report has to be written. There have been three reports in the past two years.

But it is obvious to everyone that this woman, moving in circles through the system, has a diminished mental capacity; the intellectual age of a child.

‘‘Clearly this woman ... is labouring under a disability,’’ said the judge at her Waita¯ kere District Court hearing in August.

At another psychological evaluation in October, the report writer described Josie arriving with chipped nail polish, bare feet and chocolate on her face.

Asked what she was charged with, Josie explained: ‘‘Thieving. I was starving. Got into trouble, cops took [me] home.’’

She had allegedly gone on a petty crime spree a month earlier, accused of shoplifting food from a West Auckland dairy, assaulting a person in the street and resisting arrest.

Her presentation was ‘‘entirely consistent with a significant degree of cognitive impairment’’, the psychologist noted. Asked if she planned to plead guilty or not guilty, Josie responded: ‘‘I’d go both.’’

Again, the report writer was of the opinion that Josie was unfit to stand trial. The woman has a thick case file at the Waita¯ kere District Court, comprising charge sheets, psychological reports and warrants to detain her in prison.

She has been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and bipolar affective disorder.

She has been assessed as having an IQ in the low 40s or 50s.

Prison time

Josie has spent a total of 28 days in prison this year.

In October, she was transferred on remand from Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility to a secure facility for people for intellectual disabilities.

At her next court hearing on Monday, it will become clearer whether she will be held in the facility long-term.

It’s understood Josie’s lawyer has been working towards this outcome for some time.

Chronic delays

‘‘I don’t think it’s satisfactory that she was detained in prison for a month,’’ says Otago University professor John Dawson, an expert in mental health law.

‘‘Probably that means that the system of assessment wasn’t working fast enough; not necessarily that the law is a problem, but the actual administration of it wasn’t fast enough.’’

A nationwide shortage of psychologists has been blamed for chronic delays in the courts this year.

‘‘It seems to be taking longer up and down the country, and I think that’s because forensic psychologists are under enormous pressure.’’

But Josie’s prison time could also be down to overburdened mental health facilities being unable to offer her a bed, or the dilemma of whether she is best treated as a mental health or intellectual disability patient, Dawson says.

‘‘The other problem is she suffers both from mental illness and an intellectual disability,’’ Dawson says. ‘‘So that presents this issue of, where is she best located at any particular time?

‘‘Particularly if her mental illness may fluctuate.’’