CANADA'S FIRST COMMUNITY COURT TO OFFER COMPASSION TO CRIMINALS

Downtown Eastside Facility Aims to Stop the Cycle of Chronic
Offending, Provide Remedial Services

Each day, Judge Thomas Gove drives along East Hastings Street, where
the battered lives of strung-out drug addicts, desperate prostitutes
and drunken men exist in plain view.

Of course, the judge doesn't have to take this route to work.

"I could avoid going through the area," he says. "But I don't,
because it's important to remind myself that this is a problem
happening right on the streets -- and we've got to do something about it."

Somehow, after 35 years of practising law, 18 years as a judge and
countless second chances wasted on criminals who could never quite
turn it around, Gove still has it in him to try to fix the problem
known as the Downtown Eastside.

At the age of 61, the Vancouver provincial court judge is hoping B.C.
has finally tapped into a lasting solution: Canada's first community court.

The Downtown Community Court in Vancouver is set to open Sept. 10.

Its goal is to end the revolving door of chronic offenders driven by
poverty, drug addiction and mental illness.

Unlike traditional courts, this is less about punishment and more
about problem-solving. Community courts take the view that crime is
the result of individual choices and social conditions.

To that end, sentences for low-level crimes will be linked to social
services, such as substance-abuse and mental-health programs.
Punishment will come in the form of community service, for example
working in a soup kitchen or cleaning an alleyway -- although jail
time remains an option.

Offenders who plead not guilty will go to trial in the traditional
criminal court.

After two years of planning and a summer of renovation, Gove is eager
to start work at the new court, housed in the old remand centre at
211 Gore Ave.

Gove and provincial court Judge David Pendleton will be the two
sitting judges, and they're expected to process about 1,500 cases a year.

The community court is modelled on the Red Hook Community Justice
Centre in New York.

Gove went to see it for himself and was astonished at how, when the
small crimes were dealt with, the big crimes went away.

In 1992, Red Hook was described as being one of the 10 worst U.S.
communities for crack abuse.

In 2003, just three years after the court opened, Red Hook had no
homicides. That had not been seen in more than 30 years, according to
the New York Law Journal.

There is a perception among many, however, that crime in B.C.
flourishes because the justice system is too soft.

Gove has not ruled out jail time as a sentencing option, but insists
it's not the only answer.

"If you think about it, if a person's been to jail two or three
times, it's not a big deal [to go again]. It's an inconvenience --
but it's not a big deal," he notes.

He also rejects the idea that a community sentence is an easy out.

For some, sitting in a cell is easier than dealing with their inner
demons. Gove recalls the many times he has sentenced an offender to
get treatment -- only to have him plead for jail time instead.

In those cases, Gove has often said, "You may have given up on
yourself, but I haven't."

He believes -- "and this is more intuition than science" -- that most
people want to change.

Perhaps his faith comes from the small and hard-won victories that so
rarely make the news. The victories that can be found in the letters
and thank-you notes from criminals who defied expectations and turned
their lives around.

"Having said that, I may be an idealist, but I'm not foolish," Gove
adds. "I know we're not going to change everyone."

Vancouver police are throwing their support behind the community
court -- but have also said the worst of chronic offenders should not
escape incarceration.

"We say, 30 strikes and give these criminals significant jail time,"
Chief Const. Jim Chu said at a June press conference.

The VPD monitors 379 chronic offenders, almost all of them addicted
to cocaine, crystal meth or both, with 27 classified as "super chronic."

Criminologist Neil Boyd remains unconvinced the community court will succeed.

If social support is the prescription to breaking the cycle of street
crime, then the court is being asked to provide what it can't, says Boyd.

B.C.'s overstretched health and social services are in no way ready
to meet the sentencing demands of the new court, said the Simon
Fraser University criminology professor.

"[The community court] sets up a structure, but it still doesn't have
the infrastructure around it," said Boyd.

Gove concedes this is an issue, but is giving the provincial
government credit for moving in the right direction: In June, a new
mental-health facility opened in Burnaby with the capacity to treat
100 patients. The City of Vancouver has also donated 12 city-owned
sites for supportive housing, which is being funded by Victoria.

"I don't know there are enough resources today to assist all the
people," said Gove. ". . . But to [the government's] credit, it's
moving in the right direction."

Attorney-General Wally Oppal, a former B.C. Court of Appeal judge, is
confident the court will help clean up the Downtown Eastside.

"This is very exciting because it's probably the most creative thing
that's been done in criminal justice in the past 35 years," says
Oppal. "We have to start dealing with some of the root causes of crime."

Neither Gove nor Oppal would give an estimate on how long it will
take before results can be seen. Gove will only say he's hopeful
change may be visible within a year or two.

The criminology department at SFU is charged with evaluating the
court's progress.

But Gove doesn't need reports or statistics.

He has a much simpler yardstick: "Success will be when one can walk
down the street, walk down Hastings from Gore to the Cenotaph and not
feel like weeping at what a tragedy this is."