SENTENCING FOR MENTALLY ILL, ADDICTS "A CHARADE"

Judge Brands Sentencing System For Addicts, Mentally Ill, 'A Charade'

The court sentencing system for people who are mentally ill or have
addiction problems is both a "charade and a piece of public deception," a
B.C. Supreme Court judge said Tuesday. In comments that shocked lawyers
present for a drug sentencing hearing, Justice David Vickers said that the
criminal justice system has failed people who have personal life problems
that go beyond criminal behaviour. "To suggest that we can deal with it
adequately in the way we are doing, in the criminal justice system, is both
a charade and a piece of public deception which is unfair," Vickers said.

His comments came as he adjourned a sentencing hearing for 61-year-old
Joseph L. Paquette, who had been found guilty in connection with a large
marijuana grow-operation in White Rock. Paquette, who is mentally ill and
lives in a co-op for people with disabilities, did not show up for the
hearing. In putting the case over to Oct. 24, Justice Vickers launched a
broadside about the quality of pre-disposition reports prepared for such
hearings by the provincial probation service. He said he was "profoundly
disappointed" by the lack of information in the report, which he said did
not help him in deciding how to sentence Paquette.

"We can't deal with mental illness and addiction to substances in the
criminal justice system," the judge said. "How do we get him well? This
record doesn't tell me anything, other than that deterrence doesn't work,
that we haven't done anything about rehabilitation and addressing the
underlying problem. I for one would like to address the underlying
problems. I must express my profound disappointment with what is a systemic
inability of Corrections to provide enough information to deal with these
underlying problems."

Pre-disposition reports -- previously called pre-sentence reports -- are
prepared by the provincial probation office and include biographical
information about the accused based on records and interviews. But they do
not include assessments of future risk and needs of the accused. Vickers
said he wasn't criticizing the person who wrote the report on Paquette, but
rather the entire process.

"I do want to say that these types of reports are totally unhelpful. They
don't address the issues. I don't care what his mother did, what his father
did, or anything like that. This is a 61-year-old mentally ill addicted
individual. It is a challenge for all of us to deal with it."

Paquette's lawyer, Nicholas Weigelt, said he was "pleasantly shocked" by
the judge's comments, which he said "came out of nowhere" and which he said
mirrored his own concerns about sentencing for mentally ill people. "I
think we are all concerned about the relative superficiality of the
reporting system," Weigelt said. In Victoria, Attorney-General Andrew
Petter's office said it has asked for transcripts and promised to relay the
judge's concerns to the agencies involved.