Pubdate: Sun, 18 Jun 2006
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Matthew Ramsey

CHRONIC OFFENDERS FIND CITY'S A HAVEN

Mild weather, a laissez-faire attitude and drugs make Vancouver a 
gift package for repeat, chronic and super-chronic offenders, says 
the police officer in charge of managing them.

"The bow [on the package] is the courts," says Det. Const. Rowan 
Pitt-Payne, head of the Vancouver's Chronic Offender Program (COP). 
"We all know the system is broken."

On the desk in Pitt-Payne's modest cubicle is a list of 10 of the 
city's most prolific property-crime offenders.

The Province can't name them because they are all targets of ongoing 
surveillance. They're called "super-chronic" because they have at 
least 12 charges to their names in the past 12 months. Pitt-Payne 
came up with the new term because the "chronic offender" designation 
(four or five charges over 12 months) would have resulted in a target 
pool of about 3,000 criminals in the city of Vancouver. As it is now, 
Pitt-Payne and other COP officers monitor more than 100.

The short sentences, while presumably a boon for the convicted, are a 
bust for Pitt-Payne. He is trying to convince the courts that longer, 
"purposeful" sentences would help the convicted to kick their drug 
addictions and take steps toward a better life.

Crown spokesman Stan Lowe says prosecutors work with COP police to 
inform the court of the offender's past criminality.

"We have to put the seriousness of the offence in its proper 
perspective," Lowe says, noting that personal problems the chronic 
offenders face make their cases difficult.

Pitt-Payne says the tendency for light sentences after repeat arrests 
has lead super-chronics to believe "you're going to get caught, but 
you're not going to do any time."

The average sentence in a B.C. Corrections facility is 55 days, says 
spokesman Bruce Bannerman.

Corrections offers "core programs" both in and out of custody, but 
inside, there are often waitlists, and short sentences don't give the 
offender enough time to complete the work.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal has floated the idea of a community 
court system that would include judicial penalties with mandatory 
addiction counselling, treatment and concentrated social services, 
but whether there are enough services to meet the need is debatable. 
Nor has Oppal provided a firm timeline of implementation, only 
committing to study the idea.

A report on rampant property crime and possible solutions released in 
October 2005 by the B.C. Justice Review Task Force suggested radical 
steps are needed. They include a basic recognition that chronic 
offenders are in crisis and require concrete help if they are to turn 
their lives around.

Dr. Bill MacEwan works with drug addicted and mentally ill patients 
every day at St. Paul's Hospital and in outreach work on the Downtown 
Eastside, where many of the super-chronics live when outside jail.

Asked if there were enough services to assist the mentally ill, 
MacEwan says the answer is simple. "No. It's quite clear," he says. 
"We definitely need more. It's how you pattern the service that 
counts. Even if you had a Cadillac of services, most of these guys 
are going to tell you to f--- off. The real challenge is to be able 
to deliver these things in a meaningful way."

Last month, a Senate report called Out of the Shadows at Last noted 
that existing services for the mentally ill reach only two-thirds of 
Canadians who need them. Many of those people live on the streets as 
a result or are confined in jail, the report said. It called on 
Ottawa to invest $500 million in funding mental-illness support 
services. To date, Ottawa has yet to respond with an investment.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman