Catch and Release Doesn't Work for Drunks

(Aired on October 13, 2010)

If you get picked up for being drunk or passed out in public, you can go to one of two places.  You can go to the emergency room if your medical condition is serious enough.  Or you can go to the drunk tank.

If you are sent to the drunk tank in RCMP cells, you will essentially be left there to sober up.  Every now and then a guard will check up on you, make sure you're doing okay, and give you a meal.  When it's deemed you are back in your right mind, you are released.  It sounds like I know this from personal experience, but in fact, there has been so much made public concerning drunk tank policy lately that we all probably know, whether we've stayed a night in the clink or not.

A deficiency in the drunk tank system is being played out in a coroner's inquest this week, as a jury hears about the tragic demise of Stanley Cardinal after being lodged in cells last year.  The recent sex in cells in controversy also reveals problems with the system. 

What the E.R. and the drunk tank have in common is that they are both "catch and release."  Once you're done, you're done, and off you go.  But a lot of the time, if you get picked up for being drunk or passed out in public, it's not an isolated incident.  You'll be back.  That's why catch and release isn't necessarily appropriate.

Elsewhere in the province, communities have been setting up sobering centres.  At a sobering centre, a person picked up passed out is set up with the programs that will get them on the road to recovery.  I'd like to see this become the norm, rather than a rarity.  Even during fishing season, it sounds a lot better than catch and release.