New Brunswick’s Justice Minister is hoping to revive Saint John’s mental health court this year.
In a one-on-one interview with Acadia Broadcasting, Denis Landry said that the return of the mental health court is something he wants to do under his mandate and it is his wish it happens within the year, though stopped short at giving a solid date.
“We’re trying to put it back to serve the people that have mental issues in this province,” says Landry, “I cannot tell you when exactly it will be put in place but we’re working really hard at it right now.”
“It’s going slowly but surely.”
The mental health court in Saint John was the only one of its kind in New Brunswick, though most other provinces have some form of one. It offered a different type of criminal justice system experience for accused people with mental health conditions, where a varied group of people would work with them on their case. It launched in 2000 as a pilot project and was formally adopted in 2003 — a decade later, it closed with the retirement of Judge Alfred Brien, who oversaw the mental health court.
“There will be more detail as it goes,” says Landry. “I think it’s a real need for some people in this province.”
The director for UNB Saint John’s Centre for Criminal Justice Studies would also like to see the court reinstated.
Dr. Mary Ann Campbell studied the court, and says one of the most striking things was that those who completed the program had reduced levels of the risk factors more directly related to criminal behaviour.
“The court was able to help people reduce those risk factors so that the likelihood of continued involvement in crime went down,” says Dr. Campbell.
“Those who didn’t finish the court, didn’t get the full dose of the court program tended to be higher risk.”
When it comes to reoffending, the actual rates weren’t dramatically different for those who completed the program, but they were lower than those who didn’t.
While there is no mental health court now in New Brunswick, Dr. Campbell points out that the Elsipogtog First Nation has a healing wellness court that is operational, and while it’s not specific to just mental health:
“But it does offer that similar type of model that’s more about providing services to a person to meet their needs in a culturally sensitive way rather than just do what we’ve always done that doesn’t seem to work.”
