After years in the making, the province now has a mental-health court in operation.
"The reality is we know many of the people that are in our jails have a mental illness and are there as a result of their mental illness," said Nicole Chammartin from the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The new mental-health court in Manitoba was established to focus on cases where mental-health issues were a factor in a crime.
The idea is to offer specialized supports. For 18 to 24 months, offenders receive counselling, help with employment and education. Each week, they check in with a judge who follows their progress. The court expects to eventually oversee about 40 to 50 people at once.
The CMHA calls it a more sensitive prosecution system.
"If we can come up with a good diversionary process where people actually get the treatment they need, society benefits – it's the best for all of us," said Chammartin.
Among the cases it looked at in its first day of operations, the mental-health court heard about a man living with mental illness who had no previous criminal record.
The man pleaded guilty to a mischief in incident in which he paved over his neighbour's garden and yard with asphalt and also admitted to swinging a metal tool at neighbours and for hitting a woman with a metal baseball bat in the head. The woman apparently wasn't seriously injured.
"He's been vetted by the Crown's office and by mental-health professionals and the feeling is he is going to do very well," said Susan Helenchilde, the Crown attorney for community prosecutions.
Those that don't successfully graduate from programs through the mental-health court could be back before a judge facing regular sentencing.
The mental-health court will sit weekly and has cost the province $600,000 to start up.
