FIRST DAY OF A COURT AND A YOUNG LIFE WITH HOPE

It was a long walk to court for the heroin user, 17 years old and
seven months' pregnant.

Trains don't run to the far-flung south-western suburb where she
lives, and the girl had no money for a bus.

With younger siblings to get ready for school, she eventually arrived,
three hours late, for the first day of the State's new Youth Drug
Court, which sat yesterday at Campbelltown Children's Court.

The magistrate, Ms Bev Schurr, was relieved: the girl's case was only
the second to go before the court, and she didn't want to see her slip
away.

A heroin user, now on methadone, the teenager had been convicted of
shoplifting to support her drug habit.

The police prosecutor, Mr Martin Killen, told the court she had mostly
stolen toothpaste, which was then sold to discount shops for small
amounts of cash.

With elder siblings on adult Drug Court programs - the adult court
began operating last year - the girl had decided to try the youth drug
court program for the sake of her unborn child.

The Youth Drug Court comes out of recommendations from the NSW 1999
Drug Summit. It is a two-year pilot that will take on 120 children a
year.

When the teenager eventually made her way into the courtroom, she sat
before the magistrate, her thin body nervously bouncing on her seat.

"There is a definite connection between her offences and her drug
taking," said her legal aid solicitor, Ms Kerry Graham.

She also told the court that her client, more than half way through
her pregnancy, had chosen to ask to go on the Youth Drug Court program
based primarily on the level of support she will receive from the court.

The magistrate agreed. "Yes, particularly given the lack of facilities
for [women with] children if they're incarcerated," she said.

And so the girl was given new bail conditions, and ordered to attend a
drug assessment.

Ms Schurr said the youth court was about giving young drug users
assisted rehabilitation, rather than leaving them to their own devices.

Young mothers with drug problems were a particular target group for
the court, she said.

"This program is also emphasising extending services to young women,
to give them that extra help they need. There are not quite as many
... facilities now for young women as there should be. Also to help
them to avoid becoming drug-addicted mothers with children who get
taken away from them."

Staffed by four magistrates, the Youth Drug Court operates out of the
Cobham Children's Court each Monday, and Campbelltown Children's Court
each Thursday.

The idea is to divert from custody 14- to 18-year-olds who commit
crimes - excluding homicide, sex offences and some armed robberies -
to support their habit.

Instead, the magistrates identify them as potential candidates for the
program when they first appear at a children's court.

They are then referred to the Youth Drug Court, where another
magistrate decides if they are eligible. If the answer is yes, the
teenagers are assessed over two weeks to see if they are suitable for
rehabilitation.

If the assessment is successful, they are granted bail, and spend the
next six months in intensive therapy and counselling sessions, with
workers from the departments of Juvenile Justice, Community Services,
Health and Education and Training.

If at the end of their program they are successful, their sentence is
suspended.

Mr Killen, the police prosecutor, said the court was the State's first
substantive attempt at tackling the drug crime cycle.

"In the past it's been Band-Aid measures applied in trying to address
drug crime problems, and this is the first time they're addressing the
real issue, which is getting to the source of the problem - of heroin
addiction - which doesn't just involve physical addiction but the
whole package, the psychological factors."