Pubdate: Wed, 04 Oct 2000
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Author: Jeff Lee
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (rehab clippings)

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. 
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