Last May, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney promised a two-bed pilot project at a facility designed for female offenders with severe mental illness. More than six months later, that pilot project has yet to materialize.

The Crown was shot down the first time it tried to designate Marlene Carter, who has severe mental illness that worsened in prison, a dangerous offender. Now, it's trying again.

Marlene Carter not declared a dangerous offender, judge sentences her to six years in custody with credit for four years already served in remand.

Other designations, meant to afford better care to those who need it, just mean these sick inmates are put in an unofficial version of segregation, critics charge.

Marlene Carter is an inmate with severe mental illness who's spent much of the past five years in restraints and in solitary confinement. Thursday afternoon, a judge will decide whether she's a dangerous offender.