OTTAWA — A
30-year-old man
with Down
syndrome and
bipolar disorder
has been housed
in a segregated
cell at the
Ottawa-Carleton
Detention Centre
for more than
two weeks, a
case some say
highlights a gap
in the criminal
justice system.
Karl Gauthier is
charged with
assault after an
alleged incident
last month
involving a
worker at his
Nation Township
group home. He
is expected to
remain at the
jail until at
least Wednesday,
when he has a
bail hearing.
Until he is
released, Mr.
Gauthier faces
“horrific”
conditions at
OCDC, according
to Dave Lundy,
an official with
the Ontario
Public Service
Employees Union,
which represents
correctional
officers at the
jail.
“The reports I
have are that
he’s standing in
his own
… urine,” Mr.
Lundy said,
adding Mr.
Gauthier soils
his sheets and
needs his
diapers changed.
Correctional
officers are
“not given the
training to help
an individual
like that,” Mr.
Lundy said.
“If you’re going
to house a
developmentally
disabled
individual such
as that in a
jail, what’s
next?”
Mr. Gauthier’s
lawyer, John
Hale, said his
client is, in
some ways,
“fairly high
functioning,”
but is also
prone to
outbursts.
Mr. Gauthier has
been found fit
to stand trial.
He was also
charged in
November with
assault causing
bodily harm
after another
alleged incident
involving a
group home
worker, Mr. Hale
said.
After allegedly
committing two
offences at the
same home, “it
was seen as
dangerous to let
him go back
there,” he said.
“There is a real
gap for guys
like this who
suffer fairly
serious mental
illnesses and
get caught up in
the criminal
justice system
but who don’t
fall into those
two very
discrete
categories of
either unfit (to
stand trial) or
NCR (not
criminally
responsible for
the alleged
crime),” which
would allow them
to be admitted
to the Royal
Ottawa Mental
Health Centre,
said Mr. Hale.
“If it’s not a
fitness or NCR
issue, then you
have to hope
there’s some
place in the
community that
will take him
in,” Mr. Hale
said.
Staff at the
group home are
now converting
an outbuilding
on the property
into an
apartment for
Mr. Gauthier in
anticipation of
his return after
the bail
hearing,
L’Orignal court
was told
Wednesday.
While leaving
the courtroom
last week, a
handcuffed Mr.
Gauthier asked
his lawyer if he
could have
access to his
Gameboy.
“We’re anxious
for him to get
out and we’re
looking forward
and anxious to
start this new
phase of the
plan and of the
support that we
we want to give
him,” said
Jacques
Pelletier,
executive
vice-president
of Solution-s,
an Eastern
Ontario
organization
that gives
adults with
developmental
disabilities,
psychiatric
conditions and
behavioural
challenges
access to
specialized
clinical
supports and
services.
Mr. Gauthier has
been a client of
the organization
for about eight
months, Mr.
Pelletier said.
“There’s no way
that we think
that the jail is
the proper place
for Mr.
Gauthier,” he
said, adding his
organization is
now providing
intensive
training for the
staff at the
home, where Mr.
Gauthier has
lived for about
six months.
Solution-s staff
are also
developing
respite services
and protocols on
interacting with
Mr. Gauthier, in
addition to
offering him
support, Mr.
Pelletier said.
“We do think
that this man
has what it
takes to get his
life together,
we just need to
break this
cycle. The more
he goes in front
of a judge, the
more he goes to
jail, the more
it’s difficult
to break,” Mr.
Pelletier said.
Mr. Lundy called
Mr. Gauthier’s
detention at the
jail a “tragedy”
that affects the
inmate and
correctional
officers.
“That’s not
their job, to be
social workers,”
he said, adding
that guards have
gone “above and
beyond” to try
to help Mr.
Gauthier by
bringing in
cartoons,
crayons and
colouring books.
Mr. Gauthier’s
case “also
speaks to the
conditions that
the correctional
officers have to
work in,” said
Mr. Lundy, whose
union members
recently
rejected a
contract offer
from the
provincial
government that
contained
proposed cuts to
sick time.
About 250
correctional
officers at OCDC
are among the
union
membership.
“When you’ve got
an individual
standing in
urine, who is
basically naked
... whose sheets
are soiled,
there’s dirty
diapers on the
floor, out the
door, there’s
feces on the
wall — that’s an
environment
where you’ve got
disease and
parasites. That
leads to
sickness,” Mr.
Lundy said.
Dr. John
Bradford, the
associate chief
in charge of
forensic
psychiatry with
the Royal Ottawa
Health Care
Group, said that
despite checks
and balances in
the system, a
person could end
up in jail even
though he or she
“may not be
suited to that
environment at
all.”
Jail is a
“stressful
place,” said Dr.
Bradford, who is
also a professor
and head of the
division of
forensic
psychiatry at
the University
of Ottawa.
“Having a person
with Down
syndrome,
limited
socialization
skills,
certainly
limited
intellectual
skills, in a
harsh
environment like
that, there are
some real
questions about
whether this is
the best place
for that
person,” he
said.
Dr. Bradford,
who was not
familiar with
Mr. Gauthier’s
case, said the
issue highlights
the need for
crisis or
emergency beds
where people can
go on short
notice.
“I know they do
have some of
those crisis
beds (in the
system) but at
times I’ve felt
that they
probably are
under too much
pressure,” Dr.
Bradford said.
It’s not the
first time Mr.
Gauthier has
stayed at OCDC.
In January 2005,
he spent 12 days
in jail after
being charged
with uttering a
threat against
staff at the
group home where
he lived.
After Mr.
Gauthier refused
to go back to
the home, there
was nowhere else
for him to go.
The charges were
eventually
removed from the
record after an
earlier decision
by the group
home staff to
drop them.
During court
proceedings in
that case, a
forensic
psychiatrist
testified that
Mr. Gauthier’s
plight denoted a
gap in services
for people like
him in the
criminal justice
system.
Though he was
sufficiently
well to stand
trial, the
psychiatrist
described him as
needing a
“crisis facility
for acute
treatment.”
