How Do Persons Found NCRMD and Identified as Indigenous Differ from Other Persons Found NCRMD: Profiles, Trajectories, and Outcomes

Abstract

Indigenous individuals are vastly over-represented among people incarcerated in Canada. We collected extensive clinical information and outcome data from Review Board (RB) files and obtained lifetime criminal records for 1800 individuals found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) in BC (n = 222), ON (n = 484), and QC (n = 1094). Indigenous and non-Indigenous people were compared on (a) socio-demographic, clinical, and criminal histories; (b) index offenses; (c) processing by the RB; and (d) recidivism. Compared to published rates of the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people in prisons in Canada (30%), just 3.9% of people in custody with an NCRMD finding were identified as Indigenous. Compared to non-Indigenous people, Indigenous people had higher rates of substance use disorders, personality disorders, and lower rates of mood disorders at verdict and came from low population density neighborhoods but high population density homes. Indigenous individuals were detained in custody longer and remained under supervision longer than non-Indigenous individuals but recidivated at similar rates. Criminal histories, mental health characteristics, and index offenses of Indigenous people found NCRMD were similar to non-Indigenous people found NCRMD. Further research is required to determine if seriously mentally ill Indigenous people who come into contact with the justice system are considered for the NCRMD defense similarly to non-Indigenous people and to explore why Indigenous individuals receive more restrictive dispositions, yet time to reoffending is similar.

Keywords:

• Indigenous health
• forensic
• Not Criminally Responsible (NCRMD)
• Review Board
• crime
• recidivism

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by consecutive grants #6356-2004 from Fonds de recherche Québec—Santé (FRQ-S) and by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). Dr Crocker received consecutive salary awards from, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and FRQ-S, as well as a William Dawson Scholar award from McGill University while conducting this research. Dr Nicholls is grateful for the support of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the CIHR for consecutive salary awards and her CIHR Foundation Grant. Dr. Yanick Charette acknowledges the support of the FRQ-S for his research scholar grant. This research was undertaken in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program to Dr Crocker.

This study would not have been possible without the full collaboration of the Québec, British Columbia, and Ontario Review Boards, and their respective registrars and chairs. We are especially grateful to Me [attorney] Mathieu Proulx, Bernd Walter, and Justice Douglas H Carruthers and Justice Richard Schneider, the Québec, British Columbia, and consecutive Ontario RB chairs, respectively.

The authors sincerely thank Erika Jansman-Hart and Dr Cathy Wilson, Ontario and British Columbia coordinators, respectively, as well as our dedicated research assistants who spent an innumerable number of hours coding RB files and Royal Canadian Mounted Police criminal records: Erika Braithwaite, Dominique Laferrière, Catherine Patenaude, Jean-François Morin, Florence Bonneau, Marlène David, Amanda Stevens, Christian Richter, Duncan Greig, Nancy Monteiro and Fiona Dyshniku. Finally, we are grateful to the reviewers who offered exceptionally detailed and constructive critiques to assist us in strengthening this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Notes

1 Consistent with government reports, this paper uses the term “Indigenous” and it is intended to be a more contemporary terminology for the term “Aboriginal.” As per the Constitution Act of 1982, “Aboriginal” people includes First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people of Canada (e.g., Clark, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec; Michael Smith Health Research BC; Mental Health Commission of Canada.