[LINK] "Brenda Martin in and out of prison since parole"

[rfmcdonald]

Almost exactly one year and eleven months ago, I blogged about the story of one Brenda Martin, a Canadian citizen being held in a Mexican prison on charges that she participated in money laundering. Although her pleas for help led to her transfer to a Canadian prison, the judge responsibile pointed out that tens of thousands of dollars were tranrred to and from her account from a Latvian bank.

It isn't fair to judge a person's behaviour in the more distant past by her behaviour more recently. Her adherence to her parole conditions makes it a bit hard for me to avoid coming to certain conclusions.

A week after her return, she was released from the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., and granted full parole. But since then, she has continued to run into trouble with the law, the parole board document obtained by CBC News shows.

Most of the incidents involved drinking and disorderly conduct even though her parole conditions included abstaining from alcohol.

In January, Martin's parole was suspended, and she was sent back to the women's prison after she was arrested for public intoxication. She told authorities she was depressed and lonely because no one had acknowledged her birthday, according to the document.

In March, she appeared before the parole board for a post-suspension hearing where she again denied having a drinking problem.

About a week ago, the parole board decided to again release Martin into the community, but it ordered her to undergo psychiatric counselling. Martin is living at a halfway house of her choosing, the board said.