COMMUNITY DRUG COURTS WAY OF THE FUTURE: OPPAL

VICTORIA - The solution to rampant property crime, armed robberies
and street-level drug dealing lies in a community-based system of
justice, not in stiffer jail sentences for repeat offenders, B.C.
Attorney General Wally Oppal says.

Speaking at a recent Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce lunch,
Oppal said drug-related crime is a social problem that has to be
addressed by the community, not just the legal 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."

Oppal, a long-time judge who moved from the B.C. Court of Appeal to
provincial politics last year, said his ministry is developing a
community court system modelled on similar programs in more than two
dozen locales in the U.S. and Canada.

By combining Criminal Code penalties with mandatory addiction
counselling, mental health treatment or other rehabilitation tools,
cities such as Reno, Nevada and Portland, Ore. achieved dramatic
reductions in car theft and property crime.

"We could send them to jail, but they're just going to come out
worse," Oppal said.

"If the person is suitable for treatment, we need to put that person
through the system immediately."

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

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

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

"The person who commits violent crime is not a rocket scientist," he said.

A community court system would require involvement from the Ministry
of Health, provincial health authorities, the B.C. Corrections branch
and law enforcement, he said. It will be at least six months before
he can attach a timeframe to the initiative.