Mark Stobbe unveils new book about time behind bars awaiting trial

It was his first run-in with the law and he was finally aquitted last year of one of Manitoba’s most high profile murders.

Mark Stobbe’s life was turned upside down for a second time in 2008 when he was accused of brutally killing his wife, Beverley Rowbotham, 8 years earlier.

Stobbe has written a book about his experience inside Winnipeg’s Remand Centre while he awaited trial.

He read an excerpt to Global News last year before the book was published.

“Your ordeal will begin when you’re told your spouse is dead. Along with the shock and grief comes the suspicion.”

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Monday night he unveiled the book “Lessons from Remand” to a small crowd at McNally Robinson Bookseller in Winnipeg.

Stobbe said the book has some background about why he ended up behind bars but is mostly about his observations of other’s stories and experiences as he critiques and questions the Manitoba justice system.

“What I found was the locking up of people for significant periods of time before they’ve been convicted of anything has undergone a huge growth in the last 15 years in Canada and particularly here in Manitoba,” said Stobbe Monday. “The book deals with two questions: how do people do so well in the Remand Centre and why is it so full, what can be done about that?”

Most of the audience were family members or strong supporter’s of Stobbe’s who stood by him through his grief, arrest, trial and aquittal. Others came to hear his theories interested in the issues and hopeful for answers to the questions they had.

Stobbe didn’t offer any, but made a point to note that more than 1000 people are held in Manitoba’s Remand Centres daily and most don’t get convicted and go to prison.

Stobbe said this book needed to be written to shed a light on issues, hoping that there might someday be a solution.