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Mentally Ill Kids Strip Searched, Sexually Abused, Says N.B. Report

Posted on: Monday, 11 February 2008, 21:00 CST

By Chris Morris, THE CANADIAN PRESS

FREDERICTON - A disturbing new report on children with severe mental illnesses in New Brunswick has uncovered sexual abuse and harsh treatment, including a strip search, in several cases where troubled youths have been sent to jail.

Child and Youth Advocate Bernard Richard, in a report released Monday, said the New Brunswick government should immediately end the criminalization of mentally ill children and provide the services they need.

"Unfortunately, in New Brunswick currently, the local jail is often the only placement available," Richard states in his report.

Richard, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, uses the case histories of seven young mentally ill people to document the failings of the New Brunswick system and the often tragic results.

According to the report, one young man, identified only as Samuel, killed himself because he felt isolated by his battle with mental illness and worried about the burden on his parents.

"I think he committed suicide because he was afraid of being a burden on us," Samuel's father says in the report.

"He thought we didn't have a life. But we did. We had a life, but it was dedicated to our son."

The report also documents the sexual abuse of a young autistic man sent to a mental institution.

In another case, a 15-year-old boy with a long history of mental disorders was sent to a local jail and put in a holding cell where he was repeatedly sexually abused by a guard.

In one of the most troubling stories, a 14-year-old girl with schizophrenia was shackled, taken to an isolation unit by guards in riot gear and strip searched following an altercation at the New Brunswick Youth Centre in Miramichi.

Richard said although a video surveillance camera was focused on the female custodian performing the search, he could hear the girl's cries.

"Treating a child with serious mental health problems like this seems to me wholly indefensible," Richard said angrily.

"The serious issue to be determined is whether this is cruel and unusual punishment. Certainly, to the uninitiated, it appears that it is."

The girl's mother attended the news conference and was shocked when she heard about the strip search.

"That was the first time I had seen that in the report," she told reporters. "I was absolutely horrified."

Greg Marquis of the Saint John area said he and is wife are seeking help for their mentally ill son, but it's a fight to find services.

"We feel like we're living in the days of Charles Dickens," he said. "It's like Bleak House."

Richard said he is going to make sure the Liberal government responds to the 48 recommendations in the report, including his urgent suggestion that the province stop throwing mentally ill children in jail.

The New Brunswick government has appointed a ministerial committee to respond to the report. Education Minister Kelly Lamrock promised prompt action.

"The warning signs are there in the system for these children," Lamrock said.

"This report tells me that we will have to move much quicker to respond."

Richard said it is unacceptable that the best treatment New Brunswick children can receive is offered by an institution in the neighbouring state of Maine.

In some cases, the province is paying as much as $500,000 per year for each child receiving treatment at the secure facility there.

"We have to bring our children home," Richard said.

"It drives me crazy that our kids have to be sent to another country, away from their families, to access services we should be able to provide here."

Source: Canadian Press

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