A Miramichi family is speaking out about issues that people with mental illness are facing in the New Brunswick justice system.

In February 2015, Troy Hare came across a vehicle parked at a Tim Horton’s in Miramichi. The vehicle was running with the keys in the ignition. Hare drove the vehicle a couple of blocks down the road, before parking it and walking away. He says he took the vehicle because voices in his head told him to.

Later that night, Hare was arrested at his home and charged with theft.

“They automatically stepped in the door and told him to turn around and hand cuffed him and said he was under arrest for the stealing of a car,” says Troy’s mother Dolores Hare.

Troy Hare had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years before. In a 16-page report, his mother Dolores writes that the New Brunswick criminal justice system had continuously failed her and her son over the past several years.

“It was like he had some sort of contagious disease… no one wanted to seem to bother him or anything, it was like, that’s it, don’t want to go near him,” says Dolores Hare.

Hare was able to live with his schizophrenia for some time. He had a job, a home and a girlfriend.

But he says his schizophrenia started taking over his life.

Hare says her son was referred to a psychiatrist by four different doctors, but it took over four months to see one. In that time things spiraled out of control, sending Hare back into the hospital, and the courtroom.

“He was telling me dead people were talking to him….and that I had given his child away that he doesn’t have and people were going to kill his sister and me. He would be hanging onto his head. Saying I can’t stand these voices anymore,” says Dolores Hare.

It was during that time that Hare stole the car and was sent to jail. Hare and his mother say there was no acknowledgement of his mental illness during the court process.

 “I kept saying that the court and the police and mental health have got to get together. Because sending him to jail is not the solution,” says Dolores Hare.

Dolores Hare has kept detailed records of every hospital visit, medication change, and letter written to the department of health asking for help. Now, she’s sharing her family’s deeply personal story, to let officials know a mental health court system is needed.

Psychiatrist Mary Ann Campbell has been fighting to bring a mental health court back to New Brunswick since it closed three years ago. She says studies show it’s not only humane, but efficient.

“The families, participants, law enforcement officers, lawyers that I speak to all consistently speak to the value of having a more humane way of dealing with people who have severe mental health issues but who also engage in crime,” says Campbell.

Troy Hare is now on the proper medication, and was sentenced in September to 18 months probation and a fine. His mother continues to push for change in the justice system.

“I said I would never abandon him so- I didn’t,” says Dolores Hare

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.