‘Take action’
Prof Abel calls for mental health court to address cases of those who get ‘lost in the system’
PSYCHIATRIST and therapist Professor Wendel Abel, one of the newest members of the Order of Jamaica (OJ), is mooting the creation of a dedicated court for people with mental health issues who are in conflict with the law.
According to Abel, this will solve the matter of people deemed unfit to plead being abandoned in the justice system, often not seeing the face of a judge until sometimes decades later.
“Many of them are lost in the system, just lost in the system. This has been an ongoing problem we have been dealing with for the past few decades. I would make a call for the establishment of a mental health court, which we have in some jurisdictions — many jurisdictions, in fact — and in so doing they are able to deal with the heavy caseload of the mentally ill who offend and come before the courts.
“As a society, we have to recognise that these persons are our brothers, our family members, and part of our community, and we have to deal with the matter,” said Abel, who is a respected policy advisor and advocate for mental health in Jamaica.
His call comes in the wake of the most recent example of the situation, wherein Supreme Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey was forced to turn down an application by the Legal Aid Council for the release of six mentally disordered prisoners held for years at the governor general’s pleasure because no institution or family members would take them.
The number of years the individuals have been behind bars was not disclosed, neither the offences for which they had been charged.
In handing down the judgment, Justice Pusey indicated that the inmates had not been sentenced for the offences to which they were found unfit to plead, as no trial regarding their guilt had taken place.
Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Monday after he was officially presented with Jamaica’s fourth-highest national honour during the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at National Indoor Sports Centre in St Andrew, Abel said the situation should not be allowed to blow over.
“Unfortunately, once again this story has highlighted the fact that far too many mentally ill persons are lost in the prison system. It actually constitutes a fundamental violation of their human rights to be held for long periods without being tried…and as a society, in 2024, we cannot just let this pass by. These people’s lives have been literally shattered in a way because the system has not been able to adequately deal with them,” he told the
Observer.
Abel — who was conferred with the OJ for his outstanding and invaluable contribution to psychiatry, particularly in the area of mental and community health — said he would be campaigning about the issue until it is resolved in some way.
“I will continue to dedicate some of my time and effort to ensuring that persons with mental illness are not lost in the prison system. I will endeavour to use my platform to amplify their voices,” he said.
Reacting to calls for a forensic psychiatric facility to hold mentally disordered inmates who are now kept in State correctional facilities with other offenders, Abel said, “It’s more than that, we have to ensure that we strengthen our mental health services at the community level so that fewer people offend.
“We have to put a more robust diversion system in place for the mentally ill so that if they offend we are able to deal with them quickly and reintegrate them with the community.”
He further called for decisive action where Bellevue Hospital, which is the designated public psychiatric facility at which mentally ill defendants should be detained, is concerned. The responsibility for incarcerating mentally ill offenders was shifted onto the shoulders of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) in 1979 when some 400 inmates were sent to the correctional services after the forensic mental health unit at Bellevue closed.
“It is something we need to address because there have been numerous calls for us to either establish a standalone forensic facility or to have it again become a part of the Bellevue Hospital. But, again, this is a decision that State actors and policymakers have to come together and make an urgent decision on,” Abel stated.
“We know what we need to do; we just need to take action…something must be done and done now,” he said in agreeing that the silence on the issue from certain quarters has been deafening.
Justice Pusey, in handing down the ruling in late September, said “the failure of the State to adequately address the issues faced by mentally disordered inmates may suggest a missed opportunity by the State to better support some of its most vulnerable citizens”.
He further called for the implementation of the recommendations of the Mental Health (Offenders) Inquiry Committee Report, which was released in 2020.
The committee was commissioned by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes to probe reasons for the failures leading to hundreds of mentally ill people in conflict with the law being detained in correctional institutions for protracted periods, some for as many as five decades, with half listed as awaiting trial.
That move came after Noel Chambers — who spent more than 40 years in custody at the court’s pleasure — died at Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in 2020, drawing much furore from Jamaicans.
The latest six mentally ill inmates, who were represented by the Legal Aid Council and whose cases were heard between December 2022 and September this year, are among 14 for whom the council has filed applications before the courts “seeking a review of each applicant’s detention and their potential release, with or without conditions”.
In the meantime, rights group Jamaicans for Justice, along with Stand Up for Jamaica and attorneys from the Public Law Chambers, have filed a constitutional claim on behalf of some 300 mentally ill individuals behind bars.