By Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
The provincial government has released a highly anticipated report on the issue of “prolific” repeat offenders in B.C. communities and shared how it plans to address the problem.
BC Attorney General David Eby and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth commissioned the report after they received a request from the BC Urban Mayors’ Caucus (BCUMC) for a constructive dialogue about the increase in petty and violent crimes being committed in their respective communities.
They argued that the number of case files being generated by a small circle of offenders was bloating workloads and slowing the system to a crawl, which, combined with the general lack of consequences for post-release offences and fewer convictions, has created what they call a “catch-and-release justice cycle.”
Prolific offenders report brings mixed reactions
In response, mental health expert Amanda Butler and former deputy police chief Doug LePard were hired to look into the public safety challenges faced by these communities and develop a list of possible solutions. After delays in late August and early September to incorporate public feedback, their report was presented to the public on September 21.
The report identifies a number of contributing factors to the current public safety struggles described in BCUMC’s letter, including the COVID-19 pandemic’s “devastatingly negative impacts” on the general public’s mental health and its disproportionately high impact on “those who are underserved, marginalized, and already living with the fewest resources.”
With the support services that would normally assist these groups in prolonged disarray, behaviours that qualify as “crime and disorder” have risen among its members and they have joined the “relatively small and stable group of people” generally described by the term “prolific offender.”
It also confirms that fewer people are now being held for trial on remand and that charges for substantive offences and breach of bail conditions have decreased, meaning that a steady increase in mental and emotional strain on the public has collided with a lack of services and less punitive action when people act out in harmful ways.
This is why the report’s findings largely center around the government’s responsibility to repair issues of “systemic racism, poverty, inadequate health services, food insecurity, and housing unaffordability” that can trap undeserving people in the criminal justice system and make it harder for them to improve their circumstances every time they see release.
It argues that simply increasing detention rates will not help because short sentences have been shown to cause harm with no correlating drop in repeat offences, while lengthening the sentences themselves goes against federal sentencing laws, and current detention centres are not equipped to deal with issues of mental health and substance use.
Butler and LePard recommend three innovations to address the intersection of mental illness and crime: crisis response and stabilization units to handle cases involving complex mental health concerns, low secure units for people who are violence risks and require long-term treatment, and separate prison facility units for incarcerated people with mental health needs.
The B.C. government has committed to reinstating the “Prolific Offender Management Model” that was dropped after a four-year pilot that ended in 2012, establishing a new committee to facilitate communication between criminal justice and health and social service organizations, and a pilot project specifically tailored to Indigenous peoples.
The new management model will involve creating unique support plans tailored to groups of repeat offenders based on their needs, with representatives from law enforcement and other relevant agencies taking on the task of case management because, as the report says, “it is not sustainable, desirable, or effective for police to continue to bear the primary responsibility.”
As for the pilot project, a recommendation taken from a letter written by the BC First Nations Justice Council, the government has committed $100,000 to the Prince George-based project that will work exclusively with Indigenous repeat offenders.
