JUDGES URGE B.C. TO HELP MENTALLY ILL

Probation Terms Can't Be Enforced If Addicts Lack Treatment, Court
Says

The B.C. Court of Appeal is urging the provincial government to
address critical shortages of resources for mentally ill offenders,
especially those with addictions, after there was no medical help
available for an alcoholic homeless man convicted in a string of
offences earlier this year.

According to a court decision made public yesterday, Jonah Jae Donato,
27, committed six offences in Victoria between Dec. 5, 2006, and Jan.
18, 2007, including spraying graffiti on downtown buildings and
robbing an adult video store of $20.

Donato pleaded guilty to all the offences and served seven months in
jail. He later appealed the conditions of his probation order placed
upon him by a lower court.

The three-judge Appeal Court found that some of the probation
conditions were impossible to enforce because there wasn't addiction
treatment available.

"Without treatment to back up the admonitions, such orders will often
do the opposite to what is intended -- create a simple path to
re-offending," Justice Catherine Anne Ryan wrote in the decision, with
which Chief Justice Lance Finch and Justice Ian Donald concurred.

"This court can do no more than to acknowledge the lack of resources
and urge our legislators to respond to the need."

The court decided the condition that Donato refrain from possessing
non-prescription drugs or alcohol was unrealistic "given that Mr.
Donato is an alcoholic and has little ability to control his addiction."

The court therefore amended the order to require Donato not to be
intoxicated in public. However, a request to lift restrictions on
where Donato may go was left intact as a way of limiting his access to
drugs and alcohol.

There is considerable difficulty faced by the courts when sentencing a
mentally ill offender, especially one who is addicted to drugs or
alcohol, the judges said.

"Although it may be relatively easy to identify the cause of the
offender's criminal behaviour, it is almost impossible to control it
by ordinary means, such as the imposition of behavioural terms in a
probation order," reads the decision.

Donato has recently been placed in a treatment facility but no beds
were available when he was sentenced.

Requests from the court for the province to supply more resources are
"surprisingly common," said Victoria criminal lawyer Michael Mulligan.

Probation orders routinely ask addicted offenders to obey the law and
refrain from using drugs and alcohol. But such orders, which can
involve a lengthy list of conditions, describe ideal citizens who have
no problems, and that's not real life, Mulligan said. "Without
resources there to rehabilitate the person, it doesn't happen," he
said.

Calls to the Health Ministry on the judgment yesterday were referred
to the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Alan Campbell, director for mental health and addictions for VIHA,
conceded that currently beds in treatment facilities might not be
available when they're needed. Donato's case "is typical" of what was
found in a City of Victoria task force report on homelessness, mental
health and addiction, which was released last month, Campbell said.

The day the city released the report, VIHA committed $7.6 million for
measures to ease the crisis, in particular new detox/treatment beds
and specialized outreach teams.

"We've made a strong commitment," Campbell said, adding that the
court's decision shows that improvements that address the complex
cases posed by people with multiple problems "are on the money and
that's what we need to be doing."