OFFICIALS PROPOSE CITY DRUG COURT

Judges Would Send Addicts For Treatment

Members of Calgary city council and justice officials will meet next
week to discuss establishing a criminal court that can send drug
addicts for treatment as an alternative to jail.

Court-supervised treatment has cut drug-related crime and costs to
the justice system in many U.S. jurisdictions, and Ald. Druh Farrell
said she believes the idea could work here.

"Just locking people up and taking a hard approach isn't working,"
said Farrell.

"It's the addiction that's creating the whole myriad of crime issues."

Farrell and Mayor Dave Bronconnier are scheduled to meet next
Wednesday with a provincial court judge and local defence lawyers
interested in introducing the concept in Calgary.

Drug courts are designed to handle cases involving drug addicts who
commit non-violent crimes -- thefts, burglaries, frauds -- to fuel
their addictions.

In many jurisdictions, the defendant agrees to be transferred to drug
court and enters a year-long, court-supervised treatment program
instead of going to jail. They are required to get a full-time job
and submit to regular drug tests.

Drug court "graduates" get their criminal charges dropped. Defendants
who don't complete the program are automatically convicted and
subject to whatever sentence the court imposes.

A U.S. policy-maker speaking Wednesday to a Calgary conference on
safer communities said drug courts have worked in his home state.

"These are our sons and daughters -- these aren't bank robbers," said
Marvin Van Haaften, director of drug control policy for the governor of Iowa.

"The beauty of drug courts is you keep people employed, you keep
people in the community, you don't have these long prison sentences.
. . . Drug courts are a must."

The explosion of methamphetamine addiction in several U.S. states has
helped drive the establishment of drug courts there since the mid-1990s.

In Spokane County, Wash., only 10 per cent of drug court graduates reoffend.

About one-third of defendants are kicked out of Spokane County's drug
court before graduating -- but justice officials told the Herald last
fall it far outperforms the regular court system, where the rate of
recidivism among drug offenders is 75 per cent.

Meth is a problem in its infancy in Calgary, where it was a fraction
of the 204 "other" drug offences recorded by police in 2004. In
comparison, crack cocaine turned up in 562 of more than 2,000 drug cases.

Nevertheless, the cycle of drug addiction and crime has prompted the
federal government to try drug courts in some Canadian jurisdictions.

The federal government, which is responsible for drug prosecutions,
paid $13.3 million to Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg and Ottawa to
establish drug courts last year.

The four cities joined established drug courts in Vancouver and
Toronto, where officials calculated the cost of a year of rehab at
$8,000 for each offender -- compared with $50,000 for a year in jail.

A drug court is "one piece of the picture, but it pays for itself,"
said JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton police vice investigator who
managed an earlier, pilot version of Edmonton's drug court.

"It gets people back into being productive."

Calgary lost a bid last year to take part in that program, but
Farrell said she's optimistic the new federal government can be
convinced to help establish a drug court here.

"If we all work together to identify this as a solution to a problem
that doesn't have a lot of solutions, maybe it will resonate with the
federal government," she said.