INSTITUTE ASSESSES SPECIAL DRUG COURTS

Courts that specialise in treatment and rehabilitation of drug criminals as
an alternative to prison could provide long-term solutions to drug-related
crime in Australia, according to a report published yesterday.

The paper, by the Australian Institute of Criminology, Drug Courts: Issues
and Prospects, provides Australia's first comprehensive evaluation of drug
courts, which began in the United States in the 1970s.

The first modern drug court began in Florida in 1989 and by 1997 there were
more than 200 in the US. They specialise in mandatory treatment and
rehabilitation programs.

They are now being tested in Britain and the paper found they appeared to
offer significant cost savings to the criminal-justice system and to the
community as a whole.

The NSW Government has announced plans for two drug courts.

The paper, by Toni Makkai, examines whether the US-style drug courts are
feasible for the Australian justice system. It suggests establishing a
number of pilot sites which would be evaluated by justice and drug-treatment
experts.

The institute's director, Dr Adam Graycar, said the institute had a number
of projects under way to try to learn more about the relationship between
illicit drug use and criminal behaviour. He said many offences had a
drug-related genesis.

'The existing judicial process does not appear to offer long-term solutions
to drug-related crime,' he said.

No two courts operated in the same way, and they did not succeed in every
case. Judgments would need to be made on acceptable failure rates.

Drug courts focused on treatment, rehabilitation and reduced recidivism, and
they were more intrusive for offenders than a conviction or short sentence.

They were more expensive than traditional courts, but much cheaper when the
overall impact was taken into account.

The paper says that in Miami every dollar spent on drug courts saved about
$7 elsewhere in the criminal-justice system. In Oregon, the saving was $2.50
for the justice system but $10 to the community as a whole.

Dr Graycar said there would be challenges to integrate drug courts into
Australia, and in finding cooperative arrangements between judge, prosecutor
and defence.

Checked-by: Don Beck