Feds blew cash with no plan for mentally ill offenders

'There will be a less safe environment in Canadian penitentiaries.' - Howard Sapers.

Ottawa (24 Sept. 2010) - The Harper Conservatives poured $50 million into Canada’s prison system to deal with mentally ill offenders without a comprehensive plan to make sure it was properly spent, says Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada.

“Significant funds were advanced to the Correctional Service of Canada on the basis of much less detailed planning and reporting accountability than generally demanded of the public,” Sapers says in a report released this week.

The result has been a hodgepodge of poorly planned and unfinished programs scattered over a prison system strained by growing numbers of inmates with mental disorders.

“We know that there’s a growing demand for mental health interventions,” Sapers told the Toronto Star. “And we know if that demand is unmet, there will be a less safe environment in Canadian penitentiaries.”

The number of mentally ill offenders entering Canada’s prisons has doubled in the past 10 years, the report states. The suicide rate in these facilities is more than seven times the Canadian average.

“When you have a population of individuals who are increasingly coping with mental health issues without appropriate treatment, you’re going to create all kinds of tensions,” Sapers said. “You’re going to create opportunities for those individuals to be exploited. You’re going to create opportunities for those individuals to victimize others. You’re going to create unsafe working conditions for staff.”

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE

More information:
Office of the Correctional Investigator