ADDICTS FIND A BETTER WAY

Praise For Drug Treatment Courts

Paulette Walker is sure she'd be dead today were it not for the saving
grace of a drug treatment court.

Strung out on crack cocaine for 20 years, homeless and depressed, she
tried to get clean time and again --to no avail.

Then, in 2002, busted for drug possession and sitting in an Etobicoke
detention centre, an inmate told her there was another way.

Drug treatment courts offer addicts arrested for crimes an alternative
to the regular court process by putting in one year of serious
treatment instead of jail time.

Canada has eight drug treatment courts, and Hamilton Mayor Fred
Eisenberger and police Chief Brian Mullan want Hamilton to be No. 9.

Eisenberger is trying to set up a meeting this month with federal
justice officials after meeting with the federal justice minister to
discuss the possibility last year.

Walker is a peer support worker for the Toronto program. She has told
her success story to United Nations and university audiences.

"It's a dream come true," says Walker, who has been able to reconnect
with her son and other family members after the program. "If you had
told me six years ago that I would be here today, I would say you're
over the moon or something."

Walker hails from Toronto streets. There, 35 to 45 addicts a year go
through the city's drug treatment court, says Shannon Coote, Toronto
program manager. Roughly 40 per cent graduate.

Among the graduates, Coote says around 14 per cent re-offend compared
with 75 per cent of those who get funnelled through the regular court
process.

Six federally funded drug treatment courts have been rolled out across
the country since 1998. Social service providers have sung their
praises ever since.

The Department of Justice gives $400,000 to $750,000 annually to drug
treatment courts in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg and
Ottawa. Toronto's court kick-started the movement in 1998, followed by
Vancouver in 2001.

Two more courts in Durham and Calgary receive no federal
funding.

Would it work here?

Police media officer Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings says Mullan is
compiling a report about the feasibility of the concept for Hamilton.

Eisenberger says a drug treatment court for Hamilton is a realistic
goal. He points out that the federal government is looking at
expanding the program into other cities anyway.

"It's a strategy that actually deals with the addiction to try and
prevent crime as opposed to just the crime itself," he says.

Hamilton police have identified 80 crack addicts who repeatedly commit
crimes to support their habit. A 2005 study found more than 6,600
users sought treatment for addictions in 2004.

David Lane, executive director of the John Howard Society of Hamilton,
Burlington & Area, says the program holds addicts accountable for
their behaviour and gives them an opportunity to be productive citizens.

His agency's Toronto branch is key in that city's drug treatment court
program, providing housing for clients.

And housing is one of the critical factors in getting substance
abusers back on their feet, says Dr. Lindsey George, head of services
for mental health rehabilitation at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.
She says employment opportunities are also key to success.

Here is a profile of a typical drug treatment court:

THE OFFENDERS

* Cocaine, crack, heroin, opiates or meth addicts

* Mostly men in 30s and 40s

HOW IT WORKS

* Crime committed (i.e. petty theft)

* Offender arrested

* Offender pleads guilty

* Offender applies to drug treatment court

* Officials ensure offender has not committed a violent offence, such
as a residential break-in, or trafficking in drugs

* Officials ensure offender is a true addict

* Stable housing provided

* Group and individual counselling provided

* Random urine tests

* Judge regularly assesses progress

* Offender receives help finding work

* After a minimum three months of abstinence, offender
graduates.

WHAT IT COSTS

* Substance abuse costs Canada about $9 billion annually

* Toronto operates within the $750,000 it gets from
government

* Jailing a convicted offender costs $20,000 to $50,000 per year