BC needs a second Medico-Legal Psychiatric Hospital To meet a constant demand for beds, revealed a new report.
A medical, medical-legal hospital is an establishment where people who have committed a crime or were involved in the law were not tried criminally responsible for their actions.
Below Canadian lawOne person is not judged criminally responsible if a judge notes that he has committed a criminal act under the influence of mental illness and that he cannot have the ability to understand that his behavior was bad.
There is only one medico-legal psychiatric hospital in the province, located in Coquitlam and known as Colony Farm. The installation has 190 beds.
The province also has six medical-legal clinics for people who have received parole, where they do not have to attend Colony farm But must participate in monitoring and current treatments.
THE Annual report of the British Columbia Examination Committee Declare that the number of people deemed not criminally responsible remains the same as the previous year, which remains the highest since the start of the Pandemic COVID-19.
However, the number of accused released by the board of directors who have closed their cases decreased in pre-countryic years.
“It is likely that the impact of community services considerably reduced for forensic patients,” said the report.
Consequently, the Board of Directors noted that Colony Farm was under constant pressure, because more new accused are admitted than that is released.
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“Of course, the board of directors cannot unload patients when it is not sure to do so,” said the report.
“In addition, the Board of Directors regularly hears accused in the community but do not respect the orders of the Council. In many cases, these accused must be returned to detention. ”
With limited beds available, the Board of Directors said that an obvious solution is a second medico-legal psychiatric hospital.
“The Council noted that Ontario has 11 medical-legal hospitals in the service of a population of 15.9 million inhabitants. On the other hand, a forensic hospital in the service of a population of 5.6 million inhabitants, ”according to the report.
Colony Farm was again pushed under the spotlight after a man who was on leave without escort from there Hidden three people during a festival in the Chinese district in 2023.
Blair Evan Donelly pleaded not guilty earlier this year in the stabbing case.
However, it was not the first time that he was involved in the law.
In 2006, Donelly said that God wanted him to kill his 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie, while they lived in Kitimat, British Columbia
According to court documents, on November 23, 2006, Donelly went to the kitchen and caught a knife, stabbing her daughter several times, first in the chest and then in the neck.
After the attack, Donelly went to the church and prayed, according to the documents.
On January 23, 2008, a judge tried Donelly who was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder in the second degree murder of his daughter.
He was sent to Colony Farm.
In 2009, Donelly was again before the courts in Surrey.
This file is currently sealed, but according to a 2011 report Under the Vancouver sunThe British Columbia Examination Committee has granted Donelly without escort and a violent incident involving a weapon took place.
History also indicated that in February 2009, Donelly obtained unattended community visits up to 28 days. It was during one of these visits in October later that year that he stabbed a friend and was held criminally responsible for this incident.
In 2023, the Vancouver police chief then Const. Adam Palmer said Donelly was on a day’s pass when he stabbed three people in an attack not caused at the Chinatown family event.
Donelly could be tried later this year.
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