Pubdate: Mon, 17 Dec 2001
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Greg Joyce, Canadian Press

VANCOUVER OPENS DRUG TREATMENT COURT IN CITY WITH DEVASTATING PROBLEM

VANCOUVER (CP) - Fully in the grip of a three-year-long heroin jag, Mark 
sags into a chair outside courtroom 309 after appearing before the drug 
treatment court judge and promising to clean up. Mark and a few other 
addicts - cocaine, heroin, or both - are making their case on a dull, rainy 
day before provincial court Judge Jane Godfrey, who presides over the 
innovative and newly opened drug treatment court.

It's only the second in Canada after one began in Toronto a few years ago.

"Look at me. I look like a mess," says Mark, stating the obvious. "I've got 
scabs all over me. It's time to clean up."

His eyelids signal a struggle to process a reporter's questions, never 
rising above half-mast as he recounts a life gone awry: wife and two kids 
split, trucking job gone.

He had recently got out of jail "and got right back into it" when he was 
arrested last week for low-level trafficking - defined as dealing to 
support your own habit.

This time, however, he might get the break and the opportunity he says he 
wants. He's being offered an alternative: the drug treatment court or back 
to jail.

A pilot project of the federal and B.C. governments and the City of 
Vancouver, the drug treatment court opened in early December at the 
provincial courthouse, a fortress-like building located in the heart of the 
notorious, drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

"It was a recognition that the regular court system wasn't addressing the 
needs of those people who were coming to court because of their addiction," 
said Martha Devlin, a federal Justice Department prosecutor in charge of 
the drug court.

"It's a much more onerous program than going to jail."

Those selected for the program must go to treatment every day, attend the 
court to report on their progress and submit to random urine tests.

The program is also picky about who it accepts and criteria they must meet.

In an interview during a recent court break, the judge explained the 
admission requirements.

When people are arrested overnight, the drug court prosecutor goes over the 
lists the next day.

"She flags those files and gets the duty counsel to talk to these people to 
see if they're guilty and are they interested in drug court," said Godfrey.

The court's treatment manager also talks to them to make sure they don't 
have psychiatric problems since they'll have to work in a group setting 
five days a week.

The person charged must agree to plead guilty to the charge. When they 
appear in court they are released on stringent bail conditions, including 
staying out of the Downtown Eastside, keeping a curfew, abstaining from 
alcohol, going to the treatment centre every day and submitting to random 
urine tests.

A person would usually spend a year attending the treatment centre before 
"graduation" and returns to court for sentencing - usually a term of 
probation that might include continued random urine testing.

The first drug treatment court was established in 1998 in Toronto under the 
guidance of Kofi Barnes, senior Crown counsel and a special adviser to the 
court.

The Toronto program has had 47 graduates to date and three have relapsed, 
said Barnes.

That court is still compiling statistics to gauge its cost-effectiveness, 
but Barnes is confident the eventual evaluation will be positive.

"In terms of crime, when we compared people in drug treatment court to 
counterparts who have similar characteristics but are not in drug treatment 
court, we found persons in drug court were one-fifth as likely to 
re-offend," said Barnes.

He had some advice for those who set up the Vancouver program.

"Design a court that fits Vancouver, taking into account culture and 
resources of Vancouver and also the characteristics of target population," 
said Barnes, who has travelled extensively to give advice in the United 
States, where there are now about 400 drug courts in operation.

David MacIntyre, the director of the Vancouver drug court's treatment 
program, took the advice.

All the people - nine as of last week - who have entered the Vancouver 
program came from the Downtown Eastside. Many have no fixed address, are in 
poor health, inject intravenously and sometimes are addicted to heroin and 
cocaine.

"So you have a more damaged population and a less healthy one," says MacIntyre.

The judge points out that Toronto had a centre for addiction and mental 
health up and running before it opened its drug court.

"We had to create ours from the start, find a location, get it modified, 
find treatment providers and a doctor," says Godfrey.

Preliminary studies, says Barnes, indicate the program is worthwhile.

Drug addicts cost the system in a number of ways: the cost of police, 
correctional institutions, the court process and the more hard-to-measure 
lost productivity.

"In Ontario it costs about $4,500 to treat somebody a year," said Barnes. 
"It costs about $45,000 to incarcerate them."

B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant lauds the drug court, but also expresses 
a keen interest in the bottom line.

"All these programs deserve to be assessed against the test of whether they 
are worth the dollars that are being spent," said Plant.

"In this particular case, saving the system money is as much an objective 
as trying to provide an opportunity to give some people a chance to turn 
their lives around."

(c) Copyright 2001 The Canadian Press
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom