The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security spent two weeks on the road in November to examine the effect of mental illness and addiction in correctional institutions.

As chair of that committee, I spent most of my time moderating meetings and panels to highlight the role of substance abuse and mental illness in contributing to criminal activity and incarceration. We travelled to several Canadian criminal institutions during the first week to see how effectively our own jails were coping with the problem. During the second week, we travelled to London, England and Oslo, Norway to see how these escalating problems are being addressed abroad.

Our fact-finding mission started in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan at the Aboriginal Women’s Centre on November 16. The following day, we met with correctional officials and patients at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon. I am not at liberty to provide details of our findings pending the committee tabling its report, but I can say our correctional services appear to be up to the task at hand. I would also suggest we witnessed ample reason to stay on the straight and narrow to avoid being incarcerated in any institution.

We flew to Ontario the next day and met with the warden of Kingston Penitentiary and held meetings at the Regional Treatment Centre. I had an interesting conversation with serial murderer Paul Bernardo, who speculated on the motives of persons who perform criminal acts. The committee proceeded to hold discussions with personnel at the Regional Mental Health Centre in Saint-Anne-Des-Plaines, Quebec and the Dorchester Penitentiary and the Shepody Healing Centre in New Brunswick.

In an effort to examine how mental health and addiction problems are addressed in other industrialized countries, the committee flew to Oslo to meet with our counterparts in the Norwegian Parliament on the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services. We also met with correctional services professionals who specialize in severe addiction and mental problems.

We travelled to London on November 25 to meet with our counterparts in the British Parliament and several experts in mental health, penal reform and forensic psychiatry. Our gracious and well-informed hosts provided valuable input for our investigation. Our standing committee will prepare a report with the help of our staff analysts to show what we learned and how it might improve the Canadian correctional system in the days ahead.

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The audio version of Garry's December 7, 2009 op-ed column can be heard by clicking here