(File photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Sober community

Court-ordered addictions treatment for offenders ‘not gonna help’: YWCA Executive Director

Sep 12, 2019 | 5:00 PM

After a local woman was court-ordered to attend an addictions program, a woman who works with vulnerable populations says mandated treatment is not doing offenders any favours.

On Wednesday, a 39-year-old woman received a 20-day jail sentence for stealing $14 worth of candy from a business at the Gateway Mall. According to the statement of facts read in court by the Crown lawyer, the woman was heavily intoxicated when police found her, and had already been banned from attending the mall. Police found liquor in a water bottle she carried.

“They want to get help and they are going home to communities that don’t have the support so they end up right back in that cycle again.” _{– Donna Brooks, Prince Albert YWCA}

The Crown lawyer explained the woman had “pages of pages” of arrests related to alcohol. In addition to her jail sentence, the woman received a 10-month probation, during which time she must attend an addictions program.Judge Steven Schiefner refrained from imposing an alcohol ban, explaining he did not want to set her up for failure. When given the opportunity to speak, the woman apologized to the judge, and the store management for her actions.

“I’m ashamed for what I’ve done,” she said crying. “Stealing is not in my nature.”

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Donna Brooks, Executive Director for the Prince Albert YWCA told paNOW she does not agree with court-ordered treatment for addiction.

“You can court order somebody to go to treatment all you want, but unless they are willing to make that change, it’s not gonna help,” she said

Brooks added if the person is willing to make that change in their lives, then supports need to be there for that person, which includes an appropriate amount of time in a treatment facility.

“Twenty-eight days in a treatment facility is nowhere near long enough. If you are dealing with lifelong issues than you need longer than 28 days and that is something we don’t have in the community of Prince Albert,” she said.

At the woman’s sentencing hearing, her lawyer explained the woman had turned to alcohol after a physical assault she had suffered years prior.

Brooks said overall Prince Albert does do a pretty good job of providing support through various addictions support groups, and addictions counsellors, but added many of the people who get picked up for public intoxication may not necessarily live in this community.

“Another thing we see is people do get to treatment and they want to get help and they are going home to communities that don’t have the support so they end up right back in that cycle again,” she said.

According to the most crime statistics released this week by the Prince Albert Police Service, there have been 2,042 arrests for the year ending in August. This compared to 1,998 for the same period last year. For the month of August alone, there were 296 arrests for public intoxication.

—

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell