Alberta not criminally responsible project: Rates of persons found NCRMD and absolute discharges in Alberta following the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act

Abstract

In 2014, then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act into law, which gave Canadian courts and Review Boards new powers to protect the public from particularly dangerous mentally ill offenders. The most controversial change to the law included the designation of the High-Risk Accused. Once designated by the courts as a High-Risk Accused, that individual is barred from leaving a forensic hospital except for urgent medical reasons. In this article, the authors assess the impact of the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act on the forensic mental health system in Alberta, Canada. The findings indicate that the legislation did not lead to any meaningful changes in the Alberta forensic mental health system in terms of absolute discharges and incoming persons found not criminally responsible.