Few options for violent offender who has IQ of child, self-harms

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This article was published 20/03/2020 (2053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s 21, but has the mind of a child. He has been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and is prone to harming himself and impulsive acts of violence that land him in jail.

He’s the kind of person some may say has “fallen through the cracks.”

In a Winnipeg courtroom last week, those cracks threatened to widen into a chasm and swallow him whole.

David (the Free Press is not fully identifying him, given his vulnerabilities) appeared in court to be sentenced on a pair of assaults and a couple of counts of breaching court orders.

He spat on a corrections officer and punched a nurse while in the psychiatric unit of Thompson General Hospital

Lawyers for the Crown and defence and provincial court Judge Sid Lerner all agreed David had served more than enough time in jail: 210 days.

“The main concern the Crown has is where David is going to go, where he is going to live after he is released?” said Crown attorney Nick Saunders. “Custody is not good for him, hasn’t been good for him, and we don’t want that to continue.”

David told court he wants “to go back home” to the Bunibonibee Cree Nation at Oxford House. “I don’t want to be in the city. I would rather be with my family,” he said.

That isn’t a viable option, court heard. A pre-sentence report said during his most recent time at home. David was routinely victimized by family members who took money he earned as a labourer and spent it on drugs.

David requires 24-hour supervision and constant care, making him unsuitable for a group home, court was told.

Despite months of efforts, case workers have been unable to find a long-term placement that fits David’s special needs, said Nolan Aminot, a program manager with Community Living disAbility Services.

“So when he takes those steps out the door, there is nothing for him?” Lerner asked Aminot.

“At this time, there is nothing suitable, unfortunately,” Aminot said. “Every effort has been made to find something suitable, there just hasn’t been any success to this point.”

The last time David was in custody, a community agency that had been set to accept him pulled out weeks before his release, leaving case workers with two options: releasing him to Winnipeg “with zero supports, or sending him back to his home community, which was his request,” said Ashley Fleming, a psychologist with Manitoba Justice who has worked with David since he was 13.

“In the absence of a substitute decisionmaker, we honoured his request to go back to the reserve,” Fleming said.

“It wasn’t pretty for him up there… which led David to extreme steps to escape the situation, which ended up in his return to custody.”

Fleming said he made a referral David be placed at the Manitoba Developmental Centre in Portage la Prairie, “but bed space was an issue, and also appropriate resourcing once a bed becomes available.”

“It boggles the mind to think that if he is going to be released today, we wish him the best of luck and he walks out the door,” Lerner said.

Such cases are not unique, Fleming said.

“It’s sad to say this is not the first situation I’ve seen like that where because of the level of needs, the typical community channels are not open to people like David,” he said.

Ken MacKenzie, consulting director with the Natawiwewak Medical and Mental Wellness Clinic, questioned the sincerity of Community Living efforts, telling court he had been encouraging the agency to find a placement for David since 2018.

“I find it incredulous that the CLDS program in Thompson and Winnipeg have known about David for over two years, and have done nothing constructive in terms of supporting him, either at (the developmental centre) or within the community,” said Mackenzie, who has known David since he was 10.

“If we wait for a government department to develop a resource, I’m sure David will be in custody for another year,” he said. “It’s unspeakable to me that his needs are being set aside in this manner.”

Lerner ended the hearing with a decision to keep David in custody one more night, and pressed everyone in court to try one more time to find him a safe place to stay.

By the time court reconvened the following day, MacKenzie had arranged for David to stay at a downtown Winnipeg assisted-living centre, in what was described as a “stop-gap” placement.

David was released on a recognizance, with no sentence, and remains in legal limbo.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca