Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2007
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Mary Agnes Welch
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

TORIES SAY FIGHT CRIME BY TREATING ADDICTS

Want New Facility And Help For FASD Children

More treatment beds for drug addicts and a plan to help kids with 
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder capped off "crime week" for the Tories Friday.

Leader Hugh McFadyen pledged to create 100 more spots in drug 
treatment centres for addicts, costing about $2 million.

And he promised more prevention programs, diagnostic services and 
support for people with FASD, which McFadyen said police say is a 
common denominator among young car thieves and criminals they arrest.

The FASD strategy will cost $4.8 million a year, money McFadyen plans 
to glean from booze sales. Two per cent of profits made by the 
Manitoba Liquor Control Commission will be earmarked for the FASD plan.

And the Tories plan to create a 20-bed, "youth intervention centre" 
to try and rehabilitate troubled kids without sending them to jail. 
They'd learn anger-management and life skills in what McFadyen 
stopped short of calling a minimum security centre. It would cost $1 
million to build.

"This facility will provide the kind of structured, secure and 
supportive environment for young people in trouble with the law," 
said McFadyen.

The pledge is the last of a batch of crime-related announcements that 
included more cops, more judges and more prosecutors. McFadyen said 
more details about the party's plans to combat the root causes of 
crime would come later in the campaign.

FASD, a neurological disability caused when a mother drinks during 
pregnancy, was in the spotlight earlier this spring after a rash of 
car thefts and joyriding incidents, one of which left a Wellington 
Crescent jogger in hospital.

Soon after, the NDP pledged to spend $7.5 million to hire a dozen 
more FASD specialists, and Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard said a Liberal 
government would create a screening process for every newborn and 
spend more on school and social services to help FASD kids.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom