Harper decides to get tough on crime (indefinite detention for not criminally responsible)

http://www.care2.com/causes/harper-getting-tough-on-the-mentally-ill.html
by Joel Boyce


Canadian prime minister and conservative party leader Stephen Harper is getting tough on crime: by going after the mentally ill. He’s introduced the “Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act,” a step backwards in crime reform, to the days when the mentally ill had no protection or access to services whatsoever, and were treated as deviants, criminals, or the dregs of society.

Today, when you can still most frequently find the mentally ill (often undiagnosed and certainly untreated) living on the streets in any North American city, Harper’s move still stands to make things worse. He wants to go after a system that is designed to treat the ill instead of letting them be victims of a more dangerous type of criminal.

The gist of the current system is to divert those who are possibly not criminally responsible for an action by reason of a mental disorder, to a tribunal including both mental health and legal professionals, where a decision is made on the mental health status of the individual.

Depending on a number of factors, “the need to protect the public from dangerous persons, the mental condition of accused, the reintegration of the accused into society and other needs of the accused,” this person might be placed in a mental care facility for a set period of time, or indefinitely. Their status is reviewed on a yearly basis, and since public safety is first on the list, a person found not criminally responsible might, regardless, be “put away” for much longer than an individual who goes through an ordinary criminal trial.

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Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/harper-getting-tough-on-the-mentally-ill.html#ixzz2OvvBneDd