Pubdate: Tue, 21 Feb 2006
Source: Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal
Contact:  http://www.ash-cache-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3157
Author: Brennan Clark
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

DRUG COURTS

VICTORIA - The solution to rampant property crime, small-time armed 
robberies and street-level drug dealing lies in a community-based 
system of justice and not in stiffer jail sentences for repeat 
offenders, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal says.

Speaking at a recent Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce lunch, 
Oppal said drug-related crime is a social problem that has to be 
addressed by the community as a whole, not only the justice system.

Oppal, a long-time judge who moved from the B.C. Court of Appeal to 
provincial politics last year, said his ministry to developing a 
community court system modelled on similar programs in more than two 
dozen locales in the U.S. and Canada.

By combining the penalties under the justice system with mandatory 
addiction counselling, mental health treatment or other 
rehabilitation tools deemed appropriate, cities such as Reno, Nevada 
and Portland Oregon have achieved dramatic reductions in car theft 
and other forms of property crime.

"It's not a soft approach. If people are not amenable to that type of 
situation, they would feel the full force of the law."

Statistics show that about 90 per cent of property crimes are 
drug-related, and the bulk of those are the work of repeat offenders.

It will be at least six months before he can attach a timeframe to 
the initiative.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman