? Some researchers estimate the rate of FASD to be 10 times higher inside Canadian prisons than in the general population.
– John Howard Society fact sheet
? The Public Health Agency of Canada asserts that there is no known safe time or amount to drink when pregnant.
I like change.
It’s interesting.
Often it’s positive.
Computers have made many things possible or easier and the Internet has linked people throughout the world.
I frequently feel that I live in a world of miracles.
Then, I cover Provincial Court in Mayerthorpe, and the things I hear are a discordant music of melancholy. That’s not a criticism of police, lawyers and judges.
Many of them see the reality and struggle to make changes that will help people avoid being offenders.
What is saddening is the cause of offences. I don’t agree with those who say all crime is a result of poverty.
In fact, I think that is an ignorant assertion made by people who have never bothered to study the justice system, but still feel free to comment.
I’ve been covering court for about 25 years and, although I have seen a few offenders who seem inexplicably evil, what I have mainly seen is offences that are born out of injury to humans.
Some is the sickness that causes some of those who were abused as children to become abusers.
Some is the maiming of the human brain caused when pregnant women drink alcohol. Sadly, some women do so not knowing they are pregnant.
Whatever the reason, the result is fetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD).
It’s not surprising that our jails are full of people who have FASD. One of the symptoms is an inability to understand consequences.
These people need help, not incarceration.
On Thursday, July 26, a young woman who pleaded guilty to selling cocaine, was not sent to jail.
Instead she is getting help through a new program addressing the FASD and alcohol abuse that made it easy for others higher to use her to sell drugs.
That’s a good change.
Source: Mayerthorpe Freelancer