VICTORIA COURT OFFERS NEW HOPE FOR ADDICTS

Offenders must agree to supervision

Six weeks ago, Jeanine Joe was writhing on a downtown sidewalk in the
throes of a drug overdose.

Luckily for her, members of the Vancouver Island Health Authority's
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team saw what was happening, got
Joe to hospital and saved her life.

When she was ready to be released, two police officers picked her up
at the emergency department and brought her before the Victoria
Integrated Court -- a new community-court modelled initiative that
began quietly in March.

It was a new chance, new hope for a young woman struggling with drug
addiction who has cycled through the court system dozens of times over
the past 10 years.

The Victoria Integrated Court is not a new or separate court, but a
new way of dealing with people who would traditionally have been
housed in institutions, explains provincial court judge Ernie Quantz.

The court is held every Tuesday at 9 a.m. and deals with a restricted
group of offenders who have a history of drug and alcohol addiction,
mental disorders and unstable housing. To be accepted, offenders must
demonstrate a willingness to address the underlying causes of their
criminal activity.

They must also agree to intense supervision provided by the ACT and
Victoria Integrated Outreach Community teams, says Quantz.

Victoria police, Community Corrections, Forensic Psychiatric Services,
Crown and defence lawyers, Vancouver Island Regional Correctional
Centre and the Ministry of Housing and Social Development are also
involved and attend court.

"We didn't want to have these teams coming every day, waiting around,
so we scheduled people with specific problems of drug addiction and
mental illness to come in on Tuesday. That was the start," says Quantz.

"Our goal was to open up this new function of the court with zero
money spent, zero budget and without adding to the workload of Crown,
probation or the court itself."

The list is called at 9 a.m. Then court stands down until 11 a.m.
while Crown and defence meet in camera with offenders. If they are
eligible, the dedicated judge -- who will be in charge of the court
for six months -- conducts bail hearings, sentencings and reviews.

"In regular court, I give boilerplate conditions and the planning is
done after. But what happens with most of these people, between the
order and the plan being implemented, we lose them. They're released
from jail. They go back out on the street. So this is very different
-- it's a plan before bail or sentence," says Quantz.

The plan for some offenders is residential drug treatment, which is
not available on south Vancouver Island. Shauna Morgan, deputy warden
of Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre, has helped people
get treatment on the Lower Mainland.

"We transferred one man to the Fraser Regional Correction Centre for
his last two weeks and brought him to a drug and alcohol facility in
Abbotsford. We made sure he got there," says Morgan.

"Without the Victoria Integrated Court, he would have been released in
Victoria and he would never have made it to the facility. When they
leave jail, they're clean, sober and motivated. So let's just get them
there."

The judge imposes conditions that require the offender to report to
probation officers and ACT or VICOT teams. They have to reside where
directed by the teams and they have to obey the rules, said Quantz.
Breaches are dealt with immediately, but the consequences don't have
to be particularly harsh.

In many cases, there's a money-management provision to prevent heavily
addicted offenders from spending their welfare cheques or travel
stipends on drugs. "So they're not going to be out on a binge and run
out of money and start breaking into cars again," says Quantz.

The integrated court also recognizes the reality of addiction and
mental illness.

"There's no magic in my putting a condition that says, 'You shall no
longer possess or consume drugs.' It's not realistic. These people
won't stop using long enough to get abscesses treated on their legs."

Instead, Quantz speaks on behalf of ordinary citizens, emphasizing
that the public is entitled to go downtown without tripping over needles.

"Whatever you're going to do, you're not going to do it in a public
space downtown and you can't commit any further offences or you're in
trouble," he tells those who come before him.

In the integrated court, an accused person deals with the same judge,
the same prosecutor and the same defence lawyer. There's consistency
and that can be either used to encourage or to reinforce the need to
work harder. The judge can acknowledge success by reducing or relaxing
the number and types of conditions.

Victoria deputy police Chief John Ducker says the integrated court is
a beginning. "We felt over the last few years that we have to work in
partnership with people that are able to provide social work and
medical and psychological oversight that can address these problems
long term, because the court system doesn't have the inclination or
the capacity to deal with them," said Ducker.

He estimates there are about 250 to 300 drug-addicted and mentally ill
people in Victoria who have had more than 100 interactions with
police. Some have had as many as 300 or 400 interactions, he says. The
VICOT team has 66 people on its list.

"But the problem is hitting us in the hundreds and we're able to
respond in the tens," he says.

With the integrated court, the judges are onside and want to be part
of the solution, says Ducker. "They recognize the difficulty many of
us see in our daily lives and the problems we have on the streets ...
This is giving hope to a lot of people on the street, because someone
in the justice system is paying attention to them, not in a completely
negative way.

"What is really important for us as police officers is there's still
accountability in the system. When there's just no prospect of
improving behaviour or willingness to commit, we have the hammer of
judicial authority and they can and have been sentenced. It's a more
direct line of accountability right into individual behaviour."

In the grip of her life-threatening addiction, Jeanine Joe returned to
court Tuesday on an allegation that she breached her bail conditions.
She slumped forward in the prisoner's box, face in her hands.

Defence lawyer Kirk Karaszkiewicz said Joe wanted out of the
integrated court program.

ACT team member Rick Sanderson was on his feet, telling the court he
wasn't going to give up on her so easily. Housing has been found for
Joe, he said.

Quantz ordered Joe to be held in custody until her return to court the
following week.

"At which point you'll be in better shape than you are now to think
about what direction you want to take on July 6," he said.

"One thing you should think about is you would be dead if ACT team
members hadn't brought you to the hospital. I'm not giving up on you
either."