CABINET TO GET US-STYLE DRUG COURT PROPOSALS

Proposals for US-style drug courts are due to go to Government before the
end of the month. An expert group has recommended setting up a planning
committee to look at establishing a drug courts system within the District
Court.

The report by Mrs Justice Denham, chairwoman of the Courts Commission, is
expected to go before Cabinet after Ministers return from St Patrick's Day
visits abroad.

Drug courts provide an alternative to the criminal courts, sentencing
addict offenders to court-monitored treatment. If offenders fail urine
analysis tests a prison sentence can be imposed.

The Denham report, currently 150 pages in draft form, is believed to
recommend a planning period of three years for setting up such courts.

It recommends integrating drug courts into the existing District Court
system, where most addict offenders are prosecuted.

A planning committee would look at the type of offender who would come
before the drug courts. Violent offenders or those charged with
drug-trafficking would not go through the drug courts system.

The report takes the view that issues must be examined in detail before any
system is set up. One of those issues would be limiting the system to
first-time offenders.

The system originated in the United States where there are about 250 drug
courts. Many US drug courts deal only with first offenders and are
restricted to dealing with addicts, not dealers. Alcoholic offenders are
also dealt with by the drug courts system in some states.

Some US drug courts will accept addicts who were dealing to feed their
habit. More than 65,000 people have been processed through the US system.

Mrs Justice Denham recommends the setting up of a planning committee to
include representatives of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the
Probation and Welfare Service, the Eastern Health Board, the Bar Council
and the Law Society. The system could be implemented without new legislation.

The report also recommends that the effects on agencies outside the
criminal justice system be examined. Increased resources would be needed to
provide treatment places for addicts.

There are approximately 400 addicts on the waiting list for treatment.
Senior health board officials estimate that 25 more treatment centres are
needed to cope with current demand.

The US system was set up in the late 1980s in response to the crack cocaine
epidemic, when offenders flooded the criminal justice system. American drug
courts also deal with alcoholics, and some stipulate that offenders must
appear before them on a weekly basis for assessment.

At least two drug courts, in Texas and Oregon, receive funding for
treatment programmes from assets seized by the state from criminals.

The Courts Commission was appointed to report on drug courts by the
Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, last autumn. The members looked at
drug courts in the US, Sweden and Germany and held a seminar of Irish and
American specialists in Dublin at the end of January.

The last official study of drug-related crime by the Garda Research Unit
found that the youngest drug-abuser known to gardai in the Dublin area is
12 and the oldest 61.

The research found that in 1996 almost 70 per cent of detected crimes were
committed by drug-users. On average drug-users were responsible for 2 1/2
times as much crime as non-drug-users.