The global mental illness problem has affected the Canadian criminal justice system. Each year, thousands of mentally ill people are imprisoned without care. One in five Canadians has a diagnosable mental health or drug use disorder, and criminal justice system participants are usually disadvantaged. The criminal justice system does not always protect intellectually impaired persons. The death of Canadian prisoner Ashley Smith has spurred a national discussion regarding the mental health of prisoners. Her experience revealed mental health care systems flaws. People with mental health illnesses are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, which has been related to their over-representation in homelessness, poverty, and insufficient mental health care. Because of this, more people see the need for change and help for suffering people.
Research question: What factors contribute to the Canadian criminal justice system’s wrongful convictions of people with mental illness?
Thesis: Inadequate access to mental health services, youth’s behaviors being interpreted as threatening or dangerous, misinterpreting mental health symptoms as disruptive behavior that invites police involvement, and lack of understanding of mental illness symptoms by youth’s caretakers and police are all potential causes of wrongful convictions of people with mental illness in the Canadian criminal justice system. These causes disproportionately affect vulnerable people, leading to inaccurate or insufficient evaluations, false confessions, and erroneous convictions. The legal system has to be educated and made more aware of the needs of people with mental health conditions if these problems are to be solved.
Many kids and young adults in Canada’s child welfare system, mainly those who have suffered trauma, face extreme challenges due to a lack of entry to mental health care. Instead of receiving beneficial mental fitness care, Carmela and other young people like her regularly end up in the criminal justice system because their symptoms are misunderstood as disruptive or unsafe behaviors. Carmela’s experiences highlight the difficulties encountered by young people exposed to trauma and subsequently developing mental health disorders. Her foster mother knew about her trauma, but her actions were mistaken as threatening, and she was taken in by the police (Rampersaud, 2022). It is not only Carmela; many youngsters within the child welfare system face the identical hassle of a lack of knowledge and acknowledgment of mental health troubles. The youth in those situations are mainly at risk of damage and criminalization if they do not have the right of entry to effective mental health care. Substance abuse was cited by several of the young people questioned as a coping mechanism for traumatic experiences that ultimately resulted in interactions with law enforcement (Casiano et al., 2020). They were no longer getting the assistance they needed to deal with their mental health problems and stressful experiences.
Even when the authorities are summoned to assist, the youths’ actions may be misunderstood as being hazardous, resulting in more injury and punishment. Kalee’s family phoned the police to request a well-being check, and she was subsequently arrested in her state of distress. The cops immediately placed her in handcuffs, demonstrating their inability to recognize or comprehend the severity of her mental health crisis. The lack of education and resources for caregivers, like foster parents and institution home workers, exacerbates the hassle of insufficient access to mental health treatment. Those working with children in the child welfare system are in a pivotal position to spot the signs of mental illness in their care. Unfortunately, they frequently lack the expertise to give sufficient assistance and care.
Lack of access to mental health care has far-reaching and severe repercussions. Youth within the child welfare system exposed to trauma and increased mental health issues are at multiplied risk for additional damage, including criminalization and engagement in the courtroom system (Casiano et al., 2020). Furthermore, the failure to recognize and respond to intellectual fitness signs maintains younger people from receiving the help they want, developing a vicious cycle of damage and neglect. Addressing the crisis of insufficient access to mental health care for children in the child welfare system is paramount. Without proper care and attention, abused and neglected youth are at increased risk for additional injury and criminality. To ensure that youngsters inside the child welfare system have access to the mental health remedy they need to flourish, policymakers and service providers must place high precedence on developing and enforcing programs that are easily accessible, culturally relevant, and trauma-knowledgeable.
Misinterpreting mental health symptoms as disruptive behavior that invites police involvement also contributes to the wrongful convictions of people with mental illness in the Canadian criminal justice system. Inviting police intervention after incorrectly labeling mental health symptoms as disruptive behavior might have devastating results (Rampersaud, 2022). This is because law enforcement personnel are not trained to cope with people with mental health problems and can lack the essential resources to achieve this effectively. Law enforcement’s technique to those styles of occasions is often counterproductive, making the underlying troubles worse or even endangering the man or woman involved. When police are called to assist with a mental health crisis, the situation can become more volatile than it needs to be. Officers in the police force get extensive training on using force in response to threats. However, the force can backfire and put innocent people in harm’s way when someone acts irrationally because of a mental health issue. Suppose a person having a panic attack is challenged by police, for instance. In that case, they will get even more agitated and fearful, which can set off a dangerous cycle of increasing behavior. Another problem is that police employees will wrongly assume that people with mental health problems are acting criminally. Because of this, those who require medical help may be falsely accused of criminal activity (Joseph, 2017). A person undergoing a manic episode, for instance, may be taken into custody on charges of disorderly behavior or resisting arrest while, in reality, they are in the midst of a mental health crisis. This overlooks the real issue and may stigmatize and marginalize mental health patients.
Furthermore, those with mental health disorders are more likely to experience unfavorable consequences when police are called to assist. Research has proven that human beings with mental health troubles are disproportionately focused on fatal police shootings. Part of the purpose is that cops’ perceptions of humans with mental fitness troubles can be inaccurate. People with mental health issues may also be more likely to be physically harmed due to their illness. Some people also worry that police lack the expertise or resources to deal with mental health cases (Rampersaud, 2022). It is viable that police personnel lack the education and knowledge to become aware of and appropriately respond to mental fitness emergencies. In addition, many regulation enforcement agencies lack the means to offer adequate coaching and ongoing assistance for officials who stumble upon humans with mental fitness troubles.
Youth behaviors being interpreted as threatening or dangerous is another factor that contributes to the wrongful convictions of people with mental illness in the Canadian criminal justice system. Especially when it comes to mental health concerns, young people’s actions are often misread as harmful or threatening (Joseph, 2017). These movements are regularly the result of the adolescent’s mental fitness issues in place of any malice on their component. However, some people, especially regulation enforcement personnel, may also react inappropriately or harmfully to these movements because of awareness and facts about mental health. Stigmatization of mental health problems is one factor that might lead to incorrect interpretations of young people’s actions. Despite advances in understanding and treatment, many people still attribute mental illness to the sufferer rather than viewing it as a medical problem. Therefore, younger individuals may be harshly evaluated or stigmatized after displaying behaviors related to mental health concerns, as opposed to being recognized as someone who needs help and care.
Lack of training and knowledge among law enforcement officials is another factor that may lead to incorrect interpretations of juvenile behavior. Many police agencies still use an old-fashioned method that emphasizes control and compliance, even if others have tried to teach their officers to detect and respond to mental health emergencies (Whitley et al., 2015). As a result, police personnel could mistakenly interpret a young person’s actions as menacing or dangerous when there is no cause for alarm. Regrettably, the repercussions can be severe when juvenile conduct is incorrectly viewed as menacing or harmful. For instance, a young person with a mental health problem may be detained and charged with a crime despite the fact that their actions were not unlawful. This can cause a downward spiral of increasing interaction with the law enforcement system. Furthermore, a youth’s mental health can be negatively impacted when law enforcement responds to their conduct with force or violence (Rampersaud, 2022). A youth who is assaulted or held by police, for instance, may suffer traumatic experiences or have their preexisting mental health conditions aggravated. This can further impede their ability to receive the necessary rehabilitation services.
Lack of understanding of mental illness symptoms by youth’s caretakers and police is another factor that contributes to the wrongful convictions of people with mental illness in the Canadian criminal justice system. Some kids within the child welfare system, like Carmela, have had their mental fitness signs misinterpreted as disruptive behaviors, which has led to police involvement and prosecution (Whitley et al., 2015). This is especially concerning because children and teens under the government’s care are overrepresented in the population with mental illnesses. Despite this, people with mental health issues frequently face stigma and punitive responses rather than compassion. The situation with Carmela is an excellent example of this problem. She had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, neither she nor the adults in her life understood what she was going through. They responded with criminal rather than caring behavior when she expressed mental illness signs and symptoms. Carmela had a disconnection from her body whenever her PTSD was activated; as a result, her fight-or-flight reaction took over, and her actions were misunderstood as being aggressive (Casiano et al., 2020). Carmela was just twelve years old when she was arrested for the first time; her foster mother knew about her traumatic experiences but still thought she was dangerous and called the police.
For most of her childhood and early adulthood, Carmela was subjected to this cycle of being provoked and then criminalized. Other kids who age out of the foster care system have reported similar difficulties (Joseph, 2017). For example, Dina claimed that her criminal charge resulted from her “illness,” Scarlett and Arlo admitted that using substances to deal with trauma led to interactions with law enforcement. It is worrisome that parents and police officers often do not recognize the signs of mental illness in young people. Foster parents, institution home workforce, and police officers who get hold of education approximately the demanding situations younger human beings face and have to get entry to the information in their histories might reasonably be expected to recognize symptoms and provide the necessary support, even if it may be difficult for individuals with no prior knowledge of a young person’s history or understanding of their mental illness to do so (Joseph, 2017). Unfortunately, this is rarely the situation. Instead of seeking help from mental health professionals, the police are usually contacted when a young person threatens himself or others. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of intellectual health resources across Canada that is probably mobilized in such emergencies. When adults in a young person’s life have nowhere else to turn because of a lack of resources, they are more likely to call the police, furthering their criminalization.
In conclusion, the matter at hand is the role of mental illness in leading to false convictions in Canada’s judicial system. Inadequate access to mental health services, misinterpreting mental health symptoms as disruptive behavior that invites police involvement, misunderstanding of symptoms by youth’s caretakers and police, and youth’s behavior being interpreted as threatening or dangerous all contribute to wrongful convictions of people with mental illnesses in Canada’s criminal justice system. Inadequate or incorrect checks, fake confessions, and wrongful convictions disproportionately afflict the most prone participants of society. Furthermore, due to a lack of access to mental health care, many kids involved with Canada’s child welfare system wind up in the criminal justice system because their symptoms are misconstrued as disruptive or hazardous behaviors. Policymakers and service providers must prioritize designing and implementing trauma-informed, culturally relevant, and easily accessible mental health programs for children in the child welfare system.
References
Casiano, H., Hensel, J. M., Chartier, M. J., Ekuma, O., MacWilliam, L., Mota, N., McDougall, C., & Bolton, J. M. (2020). The Intersection between Criminal Accusations, Victimization, and Mental Disorders: A Canadian Population-Based Study. Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 65(7), 492–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743720919660
Rampersaud, M. (2022). Punitive Justice: When Race and Mental Illness Collide in the Early Stages of the Criminal Justice System. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit Et Société, 37(3), 387-408. doi:10.1017/cls.2022.23
Joseph H. Michalski (2017) Mental health issues and the Canadian criminal justice system*, Contemporary Justice Review, 20:1, 2-25, DOI: 10.1080/10282580.2016.1226817
Whitley, R., Adeponle, A., & Miller, A. R. (2015). Comparing gendered and generic representations of mental illness in Canadian newspapers: an exploration of the chivalry hypothesis. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 50(2), 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0902-4
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