Public Safety Committee on Dec. 8th, 2011

[Dr. Jan Looman]

If they're released under supervision, the mental health team and the releasing institution communicate with the release destination. Appointments are set up. Sometimes the offender is even accompanied from the institution to the community so that there's good communication between the staff who are receiving him and the staff who are delivering him, so to speak. As long as he is getting released on supervision, that follow-up is there.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

If they come to the warrant expiry date or statutory release, would that follow-up not be there?

[Dr. Jan Looman]

It's much more limited. If he says that he is going to downtown Toronto, the mental health team will try to set him up with services in the community he is going to. But in terms of making sure that he maintains contact with those people and all that sort of stuff, we have no control over that once his warrant has expired.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Those would be community services. It's no longer correctional programs.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

That is correct.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

There is no knowledge of or necessary connection with community capacity in those cases.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

A lot of the organizations in the community that deal with mentally disordered people have some knowledge of the issues related to antisocial mentally disordered people. So there is some knowledge. It might not be as good as what CSC would be able to provide or as targeted as what CSC would be able to provide, but in terms of addressing the mental disorder, I think the community agencies are adequate, for the most part.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Garrison.

We will move over to Mr. Aspin, please.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

May I have the first minute?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You wanted to grab the first minute. Yes. Sorry.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thanks very much.

It seems that throughout this entire study there's been a little bit of this back and forth between zero tolerance for drugs versus whether that is a realistic expectation.

Dr. Looman, is schizophrenia curable?

[Dr. Jan Looman]

No.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Do you ever say “We're not going to treat you, because it's not curable, it's not an attainable goal, so we're just going to leave you as you are”?

[Dr. Jan Looman]

No.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I think we all agree, at least on this side, that the philosophy of a government should be zero tolerance of any drugs in prison because of the negative and detrimental impact it has on those inmates. I just want to make that point.

I want to ask one really quick question. You said that when individuals come in they're assessed for any kind of mental illness. Is that part of their correctional plan? We've heard about correctional plans.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

That's part of developing the correctional plan.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

It is part of the correctional plan and part of developing the entire plan.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

It is part of that process, yes.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

That obviously is a valuable tool.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

Yes.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Would you say that it needs to be strengthened? Is it being tweaked constantly?

[Dr. Jan Looman]

Yes. As we speak, it's being tweaked.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Good. Thanks very much.

[Dr. Jan Looman]

You asked about new initiatives. That's one of them.