Re: Judge lambastes woman for making downtown an unpleasant place to be for ordinary people
According to a prominent story on Friday, Sept. 28, after hearing the plea of Robyn Longhorst, Judge Jim Mitchell declared that “ordinary people don’t want to go downtown because of people like (Robyn),” he was “not sure that we want (Robyn) in Red Deer,” and that “the good people of Red Deer are just fed up to their eyeballs with drug-addled creeps (populating) the downtown.”
Notwithstanding that he is making his own beliefs known to the general public, Judge Mitchell’s comments highlight a greater concern of the impact of stigma, mental health, addictions concerns and the law.
There is a well-recognized correlation between degrading mental health, addictions and involvement with the criminal justice system.
Mental Health Diversion in our court and Mental Health Transition in our remand and correctional centres are just two examples of multi-disciplinary approaches that have been implemented by our courts and Alberta Health Services to address these concerns.
At their heart, their success depends on community supports to work together, including the general public.
Without this support and teamwork, many would fall through the cracks and end up in an all to common revolving door of incarceration and recidivism, an all too common occurrence. If we ask Robyn to leave her community, we rob her of any support, and leave it up to her new community to provide it.
Contrary to Judge Mitchell comments, there are those who would reach out, support and help those like Robyn address the “deep seated, long-standing issues” that affect their daily lives. All you need to do is ask.
Gordon Wright
Client Intake and Liaison Caseworker
The John Howard Society of Red Deer