Amendments to the criminal code of canada: Impact on inpatient psychiatric remands

Abstract

Following the changes in the Criminal Code of Canada provisions for the assessment of mentally disordered defendants, a substantial drop was observed in the numbers of patients being referred by the courts for inpatient psychiatric evaluation. No major change in the demographic, legal, or clinical characteristics of the remand patients was found. The expected increase in the finding of unfitness to stand trial was not observed. However, there was a marked trend for the new 5-day remand provision to be used for the assessment of the most severely mentally ill. Most of these individuals subsequently slipped through the gaps in the legislation, returning to jail after only 5 days in hospital and receiving no further psychiatric care. In contrast, of those remanded for 30 days, 41% were not suffering from a major psychotic illness. The implications of these findings for the care of the mentally ill offenders and the provision of forensic psychiatric services are discussed.