INNOVATIVE COURTS OFFER HOPE TO CONTROL STREET CRIME

The long-awaited report from the B.C. Justice Review Task Force makes
some valuable recommendations, and now it's incumbent upon the
provincial government to follow through with the necessary funding to
make those recommendations a reality.

The report, titled Beyond the Revolving Door: A New Response to Chronic
Offenders, aims to increase public confidence in British Columbia's justice
system by improving how it deals with the people who are most responsible
for Vancouver's epidemic of street crime.

The report notes that 70 per cent of adult street crime offenders are
chronic re-offenders, meaning that they have been charged with five or
more offences in the past year, or convicted five or more times in the
past four years. Many of these offenders are beset by mental health or
addictions problems, or both.

Vancouver is home to more than 9,000 intravenous drug users, many
concentrated in the Downtown Eastside. The report found that 74 per
cent of Eastside addicts have criminal records, and 61 per cent admit
to regularly committing crimes to pay for drugs. In fact, one addict
admitted to breaking into 20 cars a day to feed her habit.

The public typically responds to such news with cries that we need to
lock these people up and throw away the key, and the justice system
often obliges. But we have known for a long time that jail, in
addition to costing taxpayers a small fortune, does little more than
create better criminals. One recent study even found that the longer
offenders stay in jail, the more likely they are to re-offend when
they're released.

In light of this, the task force has proposed something quite
different. The report calls for the development of a community court
in Vancouver, one that focuses on "solving the problems" of offenders
and the community rather than on adjudicating guilt and innocence.

Community courts would also emphasize treatment for addicts or those
suffering from mental health problems. To the public, this might sound
like mollycoddling of criminals, but the courts would still be capable
of implementing "a full range of punitive" responses.

Further, in contrast to our failed attempts to rein in crime by
jailing addicts, there is some evidence that community courts work.
New York, one of the few North American cities with such courts, has
brought street crime under control and the courts appear at least
partly responsible.

The report notes that if the courts are to work -- and more broadly,
if this approach to dealing with troubled offenders is to bear fruit
- -- there must be much better communication and coordination between
the justice and health systems. Further, we will likely need to
develop greater treatment and housing capacities.

All of this will, no doubt, require significant infusions of cash,
though the report doesn't say how much. That's where the provincial
government comes in: Although it's under pressure to control spending,
the approach suggested by the task force could ultimately decrease the
financial and human costs of street crime.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal has thrown his support behind the
report's proposals and has said that Premier Gordon Campbell is also
onside. Now it's time for them to make good on their intentions, for
the sake of all law-abiding Vancouverites, who've suffered from far
too high a property crime rate for far too long.