Judicial system draws attention to crisis
in mental health underfunding
(Toronto – Nov. 18, 2010) – Ontario is falling
desperately short in its responsibility to protect and
rehabilitate mental health patients who find themselves caught
in the criminal justice system, says the Ontario Public Service
Employees Union.
To address this crisis, OPSEU is calling on the
provincial government to provide immediate, designated and
sustainable funding that will permit mental health patients to
access services they require – away from police cells and
correctional facilities.
The problem facing this category of mental
health patients was brought into focus in a Nov. 16 Globe and
Mail story that reported how provincial judges have ordered
hospital officials to stop shunting unfit offenders to
provincial jails where they cannot be properly treated.
Judges are now ordering
hospital officials to stop their practice of forcing patients
who require care into provincial correctional facilities. The
judges have awarded legal costs against the Crown for a “serious
affront to the authority of the courts and a serious
interference with the administration of justice,” according to
the Globe story.
The provincial government has
been cutting costs at mental health facilities for years,
promising funding to community alternatives but failing to
implement these plans while mentally ill offenders continue to
languish in correctional facilities. According to the Ministry
of Community Safety and Correctional Services, more than
one-third of individuals in custody in Ontario suffer from some
sort of mental illness.
Lawyers and advocates for
mentally ill offenders are hoping that out of this battle
between courts and hospitals there will emerge legislative
changes to address these issues. While the court-ordered
hospitalization for unfit offenders is a step in the right
direction, empty beds do not magically appear. Until funding is
restored to mental health facilities, patients and offenders
will not receive proper treatments and protection.
