 There are three case scenarios you will be shown in this video. While these examples are common at the downtown community court, they have been generalized and are not actual participants. First you will meet Ken Mendoza, a defendant who has enduring difficult mental health problems and who engages in disruptive behavior in the community. Mr. Mendoza has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He receives care in the community through a mental health unit. He has a long history of mental health problems and is connected to health care. He lives in housing with some level of supportive health and social services. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Mendoza was causing a disturbance in front of a coffee shop. He has been regularly disturbing customers outside a coffee shop asking for change. But on this occasion he was more aggressive. On this day, Mr. Mendoza pushed the customer when he wasn't given change and made a threatening remark that was frightening. He said he was going to stab the customer, although he had no weapon. The police arrested Mr. Mendoza and he is charged with threatening. He has been held in custody until his appearance in the downtown community court. Mr. Mendoza was admitted to the psychiatric hospital about 18 months ago. He's currently being followed by the Public Mental Health Clinic and has been followed for the last year. Mr. Mendoza is currently on probation for some minor offenses. He does not show up for his appointments when he's supposed to, but he seems to keep in touch with his probation officer on a regular basis. We're also in touch with the supports being provided by the community care team and the housing, but he has his good days and his bad days. I think we're going to need some more information about Mr. Mendoza's current mental health state. I agree. I'll ask Mr. Mendoza if he's willing to meet with the forensic liaison nurse. I've met with Mr. Mendoza and completed the brief intake. I've also spoken with the case manager at the community mental health team he's involved with. Besides an issue with his temper, it sounds like Mr. Mendoza is doing quite well with the team. He's compliant with attending appointments and overall he's got a good working relationship. I think the complainant would agree with the temper part. He was really frightened of Mr. Mendoza. I have the victim impact statement and I've spoken to him. Many of the offenders coming to downtown community court are involved with existing programs. In this case, it was determined that Mr. Mendoza had adequate supports and did not need to be linked to resources. He was connected already. There was, however, a problem with his behavior on this occasion. Mr. Mendoza, you've pled guilty to threatening. Yes, Your Honor. I just lost it. I had no money and I wanted some change. I wasn't going to hurt anyone. I just got mad. Well, I'm glad you're working with your health care team and with housing and your probation officer. They do good work and what happened yesterday is unacceptable. You really scared that man. You were sentenced to a six-month probation order with conditions that you follow the direction of your probation officer. You continue to work with your support teams, but you're banned from the coffee shop and I'm prohibiting you from possessing weapons. You are not to have contact with the complainant and this means that if you come across him you've got to turn and walk away. Have you got it? Yes, sir. You're also to complete two hours of community service. Okay, I will. In cases like this the judge will sometimes order a very short number of community service hours in order to give all offenders an opportunity to make some reparations. Some offenders have never had an opportunity to succeed at any useful work. This program provides support and assistance for them to do so and it is an opportunity for community court staff to connect with an offender to reinforce the need to participate in the programs as well as offer a positive role model. As is community service, Mr. Mendoza was required to complete two hours on the work crew. He was assigned to water the hanging baskets on the street near the courthouse. Susan Jackson was held in jail after her arrest because of her risk to re-offend. Susan was arrested by a police officer after being found in a parked car. She had removed the stereo and was found with this and other items from the car when she was searched by police. At the time of her arrest, Ms. Jackson was on probation for theft. Ms. Jackson has also suffered a number of challenges in her life and she is a frequent property offender who has caused and continues to cause harm in the community. There are significant barriers to her rehabilitation. Ms. Jackson has been using crack cocaine for a long time and living on the streets in the downtown east side for several months. Susan Jackson faces the prospect of a jail sentence given her record unless she can be managed in the community. At its daily morning meeting, the community court team discussed that possibility. Turning next guys to the case involving Susan Jackson, she's before the court on a new allegation but she also has an existing court order. And it looks like the total damage for the vehicle damage the vehicle and also good stolen is about $2,000. She currently has two outstanding charges and she is supervised out of the Vancouver probation office. Also she has her welfare office just around the corner. But it doesn't look like she's made any of her recent appointments or picked up her most recent welfare check. Now I know I guess the police also found a crack pipe on her. Well she's been in and out of detox in the past several months. She has some success staying clean however she seems every last again. She didn't have an address for a while but now she seems to be homeless again. It looks like Susan may be deteriorating. At her last probation appointment she seemed motivated though. She's done well in the past when she's been in programming. Maybe we can talk to her about entering recovery again. At the meeting, the crown considered the input from the team members. While a jail sentence was an option, the crown agreed that Susan Jackson could be managed in the community if a suitable case plan could be developed for her. Well I'd like to see if she's willing to talk to the team and if we can get her into some stable housing and away from some of the negative influences and maybe get her some help to deal with her addiction problems then I think we can persuade the court that she's stabilized enough to be managed in the community on a community-based disposition. The defense lawyer spoke with Susan and she agreed to meet with the team member to determine suitability to work with the community court case management team. The case management team would work on a plan to provide connection to programs for drug addiction and address immediate difficulties like shelter and income assistance. The case management team would also monitor Miss Jackson's progress and risk of reoffending through an order of community supervision. Participation depends on Miss Jackson's willingness, a determination of her likely compliance, and ultimately the decision of the judge. The court will ultimately determine whether the harm Miss Jackson is causing can be reasonably addressed with community supervision. Next matter we're calling your honor this morning is a matter of Susan Jackson. Miss Jackson you're charged with theft, how do you plead? Guilty your honor. Sean are on the basis that Miss Jackson is prepared to agree to participate with the case management team. The crown's position is a six-month conditional sentence order with the conditions to include that she participate in programming as directed by the case management team and that she also complete some community work service hours. A conditional sentence order is an order of conditional release with supervision in the community rather than incarceration. On breach of a conditional sentence order, the remainder of the sentence can be served in jail. Your honor Miss Jackson is willing to work with the case management team and she understands what that's going to involve for her. She is recognizing that at this point in her life she's at a crisis but I would suggest that she certainly has good prospects for compliance here and that I would ask you to take that into consideration on sentencing your honor. Based on information supplied by the team both the prosecutor and Miss Jackson's lawyer have recommended a community supervision order. However the ultimate decision on the sentence rests with the judge. There is certainly a case to be made here for a for a jail sentence, a lengthy jail sentence. You have a significant record which I'm looking at now and you were on a court order at the time of this offense but I'm taking into account as well that you've pled guilty at the first opportunity. When I look at your record closely I see that there are periods of time when you've not been before the court so it appears there's been more convictions recently. I think that if you participate with the case management team and to take the help it's offered to you that there's a good chance you can be successful but it depends largely on you. They won't be easy and should you fail to follow through on the conditions you'll be brought back before me and so it's important that you realize the commitment that you're making. I understand that and I really want to try. Okay there'll be an order that you'll perform 10 hours of community service. You will be supervised on the case management team. You'll get the help you need but that depends on you as to what you do with it. Susan Jackson now leaves the courtroom with a court worker to report to the intake probation officer. Arrangements have been made for emergency shelter for Miss Jackson for that evening. The probation officer also made a referral to the community service placement. The case management team will develop a case plan for Miss Jackson. A few days later Susan Jackson returned to the downtown community court to attend community court programs. The court offers several programs for offenders including a women's support program, an Aboriginal wellness program, harm redirection programs and programs linking offenders to addiction and mental health services. Miss Jackson is ordered to participate in case management team programming for nine months. If there is a breach of that order she will be returned to the community court to face the judge who sentenced her. Mr. Adams is also in court today. He was charged with mischief. He is here because the police required him to appear in court after he was arrested and released. Mr. Adams is understandably worried. He has had limited experience with court. He has taken a day off work to come to court and he is worried about keeping his job. He also knows he has a problem with alcohol. After Crown has reviewed the reports from police and decided there is sufficient evidence for a criminal charge the Crown can decide that measures may be taken as an alternative to court proceedings if the defendant agrees. The Crown decides whether alternative measures are appropriate based on a report from the probation officer. The probation officer interviews the offender and consults with other members of the court team. So Mr. Adams was arrested around 11 o'clock last night it looks like and what appears to happen is that he and some friends were out. They got drunk and rowdy. They got kicked out of the bar. Mr. Adams when he left the bar he kicked the window it broke and so he's been charged with mischief and we're fortunate because it looks like no one was injured. Police arrested Mr. Adams and took him to the police station. After a period of time to sober up Mr. Adams was released by the police on a promise to appear in court today. So Mr. Adams has one prior conviction for mischief when he was 19 years old. It was also alcohol related. I was able to speak to the bar owner and the cost to replace the damage window will be $450. Well I talked to Mr. Adams this morning and he acknowledges breaking the window and he regrets it and he's very embarrassed. He's told me that he would like to pay for the damages. He also acknowledges that he has a problem with alcohol and that he needs to address that but he has been steadily employed for the last 10 years since he got out of high school. All right Mr. Adams I understand you're willing to participate in an alternate measures agreement. Is that correct? Yes sir. Mr. Adams has agreed to make restitution to pay for the damage to the window. He's also agreed to do eight hours of community work service and he's working full-time which is great but so the intention is to then work those hours around his work schedule. In addition he's also going to be attending some substance abuse sessions and that will enable him to then access some alcohol counseling and programming. All right well you can get started today on the community service and it's important that you go to the substance abuse sessions. You understand that right? Yes I do. The intention your honor is to adjourn the matter to next Friday to give him an opportunity to complete the plan. All right Mr. Adams you can go with one of the court staff now upstairs. You'll set up a meeting for the community service placement to start and I'll see you next Friday. On-site services permit a fast approach. For Mr. Adams if he does his community service his case can be addressed within a week of the crime. Community service varies. In this case Mr. Adams will be performing street cleaning work. Not all community service orders can be scheduled on the first day but many are. Not all alternative measures plans last a week or less. More protracted alternative measures plans may extend over a period of 90 days. In this case Mr. Adams successfully completed his community service. Although it wasn't required of him Mr. Adams also sent a letter of apology which will be passed along. He has also paid for the damage. This brief video has shown three typical scenarios in a day in the life of downtown community court. The court deals with the range of actual situations with varying circumstances. The dispositions vary with the circumstances. The dispositions of the court range from brief intervention as you saw with Mr. Adams. A speedier process limited the time between arrest court response and conclusion. In Mr. Mendoza circumstances the court recognized existing services already provided for Mr. Mendoza. A mid-level intervention through a probation order required reporting continuation of existing programming conditions intended to protect the public. The community service component of the probation order provided Mr. Mendoza with an opportunity to repay the community for the harm caused by his behavior. The ability to do this within a short period of time connected the consequence to the behavior in a way that Mr. Mendoza will understand. With Ms. Jackson you saw the highest degree of intervention short of jail and the full range of programming offered by the community court. During the triage stage the team was able to collect information that assisted the court in crafting a sentence that is intended to both protect the public and support the offender in the community. The community court case management team links offenders like Ms. Jackson to the appropriate services while under intensive supervision. The supervision is ultimately overseen by the court to ensure compliance and protect the public.