Compulsory care not recommended in B.C. repeat offender report

Stranger attacks have caused fear and real harm to many B.C. communities in recent times.

And now an expert report on the issue of repeat offenders has come back to government with a series of recommendations, largely focusing on mental health.

There’s 28 recommendations in all in this report from former police chief Doug LePard and criminologist Amanda Butler.

Some of the key recommendations are increasing funding for mental health crisis response teams, setting up secure housing for those with complex mental health challenges and getting people with serious mental health disorders out of the criminal justice system.

The government is adopting just three recommendations to start, and stopping short of compulsory care, though Butler says low security options could work in some cases.

“With respect to compulsory treatment, we do talk about that a little bit in the report,” Butler said during a news conference.

“It didn’t make its way into the recommendations because compulsory treatment really has not been robustly shown to improve health, particularly compulsory treatment for life threatening substance use. What does sort of overlap though with that question is the recommendation around low secure care, which is something that we think is really important to consider, particularly for people who are involved in extreme acts of violence and pose a public safety risk as a result of their substance use behaviour or perhaps other mental health needs that they’re experiencing.”

The government says some of the recommendations are already being implemented — like complex care housing and Indigenous justice centres.

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It also plans to bring back specialized teams to monitor those involved in repeat offences.

Those teams would draw would create custom plans for offenders based on their individual situations, and would include representatives from police, corrections services at the provincial and federal level, Crown counsel, and relevant government ministries.

The report incorporates five recommendations from the BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC), though the council’s commentary on the report itself falls well short of being an endorsement.

“This Investigation fails to define who or what is being investigated and is founded upon a flawed understanding of those involved, thereby failing to acknowledge the structural barriers preventing individuals from breaking the cycle of harm,” reads a submission from the BCFNJC to the investigation panel responsible for this report.

“Importantly investigating the supposed criminality of individuals who have not been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is an unconstitutional affront to the presumption of innocence.”

Among the BCFNJC’s recommendations is that police and government abandon use of the term “prolific offenders,” with the council stating this “perpetuates harm and stigma but also fails to address that these individuals lack security and safety.”