Clogged system bears b

Leo
Knight

THE recriminations in
the case of David
Timothy Trott are still
resounding with jour-
nalists, talk show hosts
and politicians all try-
ing to find someone to
blame.

The judiciary and mem-
bers of the bar have circled
the wagons around provincial
court Judge Susan Antifaev,
who released Trott without a
psychiatric assessment despite
a request for one.

Judging trom the e-mails |
received after fast week's rant,
it would appear a chord has
been struck. The salient peint
of the column was to demon-
strate there’s no one person
to blame. Not Antifacy, not
Trott’s lawver or a failed
prosecutor. Neither the police
nor the corrections people. It
is the system, in its entirety,
that needs to take the hit in
this case.

It’s too easy to take a shot
at the judge: But unless she
was prepared to buck the sys-
tem itself and take a coura-
geous stand, there was litte
else she could do. True, she
chia Trott without the

hiatric assessment. Bur®
she, like all judges, knows she
is virtually powerless when it
comes to incarcerating people
for all but the most serious of
offences. There's no room at
the inn, so to speak.

crime and
punishment

s take alook at the
numbers

Accerding to Sheldon
Green, spokesman for
Corrections B.C. there a
on average, 2,500 people in
the provincial COrrections sys-
tem. This includes remand
Prisoners (those not vet con-
victed and awaiting tnal)
which make up about 33% of
the total. On average, there
are between 850 and 880 on
remand

This is a large part of the
problem, Remand prisoners
are automatically considered
maximum security because
they have not been classific
Equally, persons in the system
awaiting psych assessments
are automatically considered
“max.”

According to Green, “We
are over capacity in max.”
Ergo, there’s no room at the
inn.

Additionally, each major
facility, such as Vancouver
Pre-trial, has a Special
Handling Unit, essentially for
coping with those prisoners
with mental disorders. At

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Vancouver Pre-trial there are
22 Seds in the unit. There is
also a 13-bed forensic unit to
deal with people whe are in
she system and have been
diagnosed as violently mental-
ly disordered.

Then there are those wait-
ing te get into the Forensic
Psychiatric Unit at Colony
Farm in Coquitlam.
Untortunately, right now
there are 28 people waiting
to gee in there and, there are
no empty beds. Well, you get
the idea.

The other part of the
numbers story we get from
Statistics Canada. ‘The last

year they have stats available
from 1998 (all those
bureaucrats, a huge budget
and we still can’t get anything

current).

There were 53,901 vioient
crimes in British C toh
Over 5.000 of these we
robberies. Almost a hundred
were homicides. 109 were
attempted homicides. Add to
thar the 287,816 property
comes committed in B.C. in
1998 and \ in to see
the problem faced by judg
There's no room at the in

Even when one factors the

the “Pacific Region.~
mostly occupied by murs
ers, serial rapists and bank
robbers, Criminals that even
the most liberal of the hand-
wringers think should be
imprisoned and so really
don’t factor in the argume:
Incidentally, there were

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - North Shore News - 7

3,697 crimes recorded as
“offensive weapons” “hich
are not categorized as “vio-
lent crimes.” Curious, isn’t it.

The government, in the
form ot Attorney General
Andrew Petter, has pians for
two new provincial custody
facilities: one in Coquitlam
which will house 300
inmates. It is scheduled to
open its doors (so to speak}
next spring. The other one,
just announced, in Kelowna
will house 150 to 200 i
plans ever yet off the drawing
board.

In other words, not soon
enough.

Now throw into the mix
the thousands of mentally ill
who use to be housed in
facilities like Riverview

sb

Penticton. Lak eside Resort

e in Trott case

Hospital. They have been
abandoned by successive gov-
ernments in what can only be
described as a failed exercise.
These are the people who
tend to show up in the news
atter they have been shot by a
police officer terminating a
Violent episode.

Not a day goes by thar the
police in every community
have to deal with these peo-
ple in one incident or anoth-
er. Fortunately, very few end
up in the headlines

During the conversation
with Sheldon Green, he
remarked, “It’s an every day
occurrence for every man and
woman in blue.”

Most of these “incidents”

See No page 9