OPPAL EYES COMMUNITY COURT

The solution to rampant property crime, small-time armed robberies
and street-level drug dealing lies in a community-based system of
justice and not in stiffer jail sentences for repeat offenders, B.C.
Attorney General Wally Oppal told local business leaders last week.

Speaking at a Greater Chamber of Commerce lunch Wednesday, Oppal said
drug-related crime is a social problem that has to be addressed by
the community as a whole, not only the justice system.

"We can't let the judges be out there all alone solving these
problems," he said. "We have to get involved as a community. This is
not a job the courts can do alone. We need to start treating the root
causes of crime so we don't have the revolving door syndrome we're
now suffering from."

A long-time judge who moved from the provincial court bench to
provincial politics last year, Oppal announced that his ministry to
developing a community court system modelled on similar programs in
more than two dozen locales in the U.S. and Canada.

By combining the penalties under the justice system with mandatory
addiction counselling, mental health treatment or other
rehabilitation tools deemed appropriate, cities such as Reno, Nevada
and Portland Oregon have achieved dramatic reductions in car theft
and other forms of property crime.

"We could send them to jail, but they're just going to come out
worse," Oppal told about four dozen attendees. "If the person is
suitable for treatment, we need to put that person through the system
immediately."

In other so-called community court systems, offenders who refuse to
undergo community-supervised rehabilitation would face the full force
of the justice system, he added.

"It's not a soft approach," Oppal said outside the meeting. "If
people are not amenable to that type of situation, they would feel
the full force of the law."

Statistics show that about 90 per cent of property crimes are
drug-related, and the bulk of those are the work of repeat offenders.

Stiffer sentences for violent crime aren't effective because
criminals operate on the assumption that they'll never have to pay the penalty.

"The person who commits violent crime is not a rocket scientist,"
Oppal said. "They do these things on the basis that they're not going
to get caught."

A community court system would require involvement from the Ministry
of Health, provincial health authorities, the B.C. Corrections branch
and law enforcement, said Oppal.

Premier Gordon Campbell and the rest of the B.C. Liberal caucus are
committed to exploring new ways to deal with chronic offenders, but
Oppal said it will be at least six months before he can attach a
time-frame to the initiative.

He also said there's a recognition that a community court system
would cost more in the short-term but hopefully save money on
policing and health care in the long run.

"It will require more resources, but it will also require the
redirection of existing resources," he said.

Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill, who attended Wednesday's
luncheon, applauded Oppal's community court proposal.

"I know that some of the Ontario drug courts mandate maintaining
supervision over the offender for a period of several years,"
Battershill said. "I think it's a much more accountable system.
There's more accountability for everyone."

Despite alarm over the increase in property crime, gun violence and
other major crimes are on the decline in B.C., Oppal said.