DRUG-TREATMENT COURT NEEDS NEW TOOLS, JUDGE SAYS

System Not Effective In Reaching At-Risk Children Where They Live And
Go To School, He Explains

An Ontario judge who blazed the trail for drug-treatment courts in
Canada says they need rules to allow them to attack the cancer of
drug abuse at its root: where kids live and where they learn.

"Current legislation doesn't allow us to send people from the courts
into schools or into people's homes to see what's going on in their
lives," Justice Paul Bentley of the Ontario Court of Justice said Monday.

"We can't do the interventions we think are necessary."

Bentley, speaking in an interview during an international
drug-treatment court conference, said children tend to learn drug
abuse at home from relatives or from peers at school.

"If we had counsellors who could be sent through the court directly
into the home, directly into the schools, we could deal with these
people much quicker."

He said this isn't the only answer, but more options are needed to
get children help from counsellors or in residential treatment centres.

Otherwise, he said, the result is frustrated parents looking to the
United States, paying thousands of dollars to have their
drug-addicted children treated at private facilities in places like
Colorado or Arizona.

"I don't know what the success rate is, but I've heard from parents
that their children are doing much better than they were ever doing
in the Canadian system."

About 500 delegates from across North America are meeting in the
Alberta capital this week to swap ideas on drug-treatment courts.

Such courts are gaining in popularity around the world as a more
humane and effective way of helping those who commit minor crimes to
support their habit.

They began in Miami 20 years ago. Bentley helped introduce them in
Toronto in 1998. The program has spread to other countries and also
runs in Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Regina.

Offenders must plead guilty to their crime and volunteer for
treatment. Those who commit violent acts aren't accepted, and the
final decision is still with the court.

Once there, they meet with a judge weekly and must turn their lives
around, submit to random drug tests, get drug treatment, get their
family life in order, and find a job or seek training.

While there are prosecutors and defence counsel, the court is geared
more toward helping the offender. The judge and offender address each
other directly in court and try to form a relationship that goes
beyond sentencer and sentencee.

"In the most simple form, it's parenting," David MacIntyre, who runs
the Vancouver program, told the audience.

"It's about developing a healthy, respectful relationship with the
justice system."

It can take a year to get through the program and while critics view
it as a soft option, Jim Myklebust of the Edmonton court said
applicants soon find out otherwise.

"They've got to do their part and it's a lot of work," said
Myklebust. "Anybody who thinks getting into a drug-treatment court
program is easy or a get-out-of-jail-free card is mistaken."

MacIntyre said their success rate is one in three, but said their
cases are the tough ones -- "people with open sores living under stairways."

He said the bar to graduate is high: crime-free for six months,
drug-free for three months.

MacIntyre noted even a small reduction in an addict stealing or using
is a major benefit to the system: delegates heard that studies show
40 per cent of the visits to an inner-city hospital are tied to drugs.

In Alberta, Judge Darlene Wong said the struggle is finding
affordable housing for addicts -- particularly battered women -- in a
province where rents and house prices are soaring due to a
petro-fuelled economy.

But she said the results are worth it: "I see fantastic changes.

"We see confidence levels, we see improvements in attitude and in the
absence of criminal activity.

"(It's) not always complete abstinence from substance abuse, but we
see people trying to leave that lifestyle."