DEALING WITH THE CAUSE OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR IS NEW COURT'S MISSION

If recent polls are to be believed, British Columbians don't have a
lot of faith in the ability of the province's criminal courts to deal
with drug-addicted or mentally ill offenders.

But this isn't really an indictment of the courts themselves, since
they weren't designed to deal with serious social problems like drug
addiction and mental illness. The only way to address these
underlying problems, which lead many offenders to engage in crime, is
to provide an integrated response, one that involves personnel from
many different services, including the police, the courts, health and housing.

Vancouver's long-awaited community court is set to provide just such
a response. The result of a recommendation from the B.C. Justice
Review Task Force, the court will finally open its doors on Sept. 10,
and is expected to hear some 1,500 cases a year.

Modelled after community courts in other countries, particularly the
highly successful Red Hook Community Justice Centre in Brooklyn,
N.Y., the court will involve people from a wide variety of fields,
including a Provincial Court judge, a coordinator, a Crown counsel, a
defence lawyer, a Vancouver police officer, sheriffs, court clerks,
probation officers, forensic liaison workers, a forensic
psychiatrist, a nurse, health-justice liaison workers, employment
assistance workers, a victim services worker, a B.C. Housing support
worker and a native court worker.

The court will deal with people charged with a wide variety of
offences, including property crime and drug possession, while the
most serious offences will continue to be handled by other courts.
And unlike these other courts, the entire process could take a matter
of days, rather than weeks or months.

When people accused of offences arrive at the court, they will be met
by a defence counsel, or can choose to be represented by their own
lawyer. If they agree to have their case resolved by the court, they
will be interviewed by a triage team composed of representatives from
probation, health and social and services and housing. In more
complex cases, mental health and addictions experts may also be
involved and a case management team may be assigned.

Following the interview, all relevant information will be presented
to the judge, who will impose an appropriate sentence in relation to
the severity of the offence, the offender's criminal history (if
any), and the reasons the person committed the crime. Dispositions
can range from community service, to orders to seek substance abuse
or mental health treatment, to jail.

Given the integration of services and the attention paid to the
circumstances of the offender, the court can help to ensure that
underlying factors contributing are addressed. This means it could
make a real difference, not only to the crime rates in Vancouver, but
to the lives of individual offenders.

That said, we must be realistic about what to expect. The court's
dispositions will depend on the services available; hence, if
addiction, mental health or housing services are inadequate, the
court will be limited in what it can do.

Nevertheless, the court represents a positive step toward dealing
with a problem that has affected British Columbians for far too long.
It is a most welcome addition to Vancouver's continuing efforts to
get the problem under control.