MP WHITE BLASTS COMMUNITY COURT PROPOSAL

Conservative Party Justice Critic Charges That It Would Create Another
Cumbersome And Expensive Layer In An Already Ineffective Justice System

One of Canada's best known justice critics is slamming a proposal to
create a Vancouver community court to fix the city's rampant street
crime problem.

Abbotsford MP and Conservative justice critic Randy White's concerns
come despite extensive buy-in for the new court that Attorney General
Wally Oppal calls both "revolutionary" and "workable."

Health-care professionals, social workers, police, lawyers and chief
judges of both the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Provincial Court lined
up to support the B.C. Justice Review Task Force's street crime
working group recommendations when the committee released its 134-page
report October 12.

White believes the court would be a cumbersome and expensive addition
to an already ineffective justice system. A better solution, he said,
is to give funds to existing facilities such as Vancouver Island's
William Head Institution and transform it into a rehabilitation centre.

"This court proposal creates a third or fourth layer trying to deal
with the same problem of drugs and crime," said White. "Next thing
there'll be a study to establish a co-ordinating body of co-ordinating
bodies."

White is not running for re-election, but he said he'll continue to
work to resolve drug problems after the next federal election. He has
not announced what that new job will be.

His skepticism about the proposed court stems from doubts that
initiatives such as Vancouver's safe-injection site are helping reduce
addiction and crime.

"The [community] court is not worth supporting until they can convince
me that everything else is working in the system, and I don't believe
their harm reduction programs are working," White said.

Using a community court to address minor crime is similar in approach
to Vancouver City's four-pillar strategy of dealing with drug use:
treatment, enforcement, prevention and harm reduction.

It's also largely modelled on New York City courts. The working group
paid New York's Center for Court Innovation less than $100,000 to
consult during the drafting of its report, according to Leask Bahen
lawyer Peter Leask, who was a Canadian Bar Association representative
on the working group.

No one in government or on the street crime committee would estimate
how much it would cost to establish the court, but Leask said it could
be created January 1, 2007, as long as government antes up necessary
funds.

The court would be housed in the same building as health-care staff
and social workers so court representatives could communicate better
with those professionals. That proximity would enable a "wraparound
approach" and provide quicker assessment of mental problems and drug
addictions.

Offenders could go directly from court to an office in the same
building to find out their community service and drug rehabilitation
requirements.

B.C. Provincial Court chief judge Hugh Stansfield was impressed with
the Manhattan and Brooklyn community courts that he visited in 2000.

"There's been a reduced rate of recidivism and a reduction in [New
York's minor] crime rate. So, as a result of that, there's been an
increased level of confidence in the justice system," Stansfield told
reporters at an October 12 press conference.

Center of Court Innovation director Greg Berman could not provide
statistics to show a reduction in recidivism at the midtown Manhattan
court that his organization helped create in 1993 or at the Brooklyn
community court that CCI helped create in 2000.

But he agreed that Manhattan and Brooklyn courts have helped reduce
minor crime and increase public confidence in the courts.

Prostitution offences in midtown Manhattan dropped 56 per cent between
1993 and 1997, while illegal vending crimes were cut in half during
the same period, Berman said.

"I couldn't sit here with a straight face and tell you that the sole
reason that this wondrous thing happened in midtown Manhattan was
because of the midtown community court," Berman said. "The opening of
that court coincided with Rudy Giuliani being elected as mayor. There
were changes at the police department and in the business climate.
There was a new business improvement district where people swept
streets and there was reinvestment."

Public confidence in New York's courts has also risen. Berman said a
survey in 1999 showed that only 12 per cent of residents in Brooklyn's
Redhook neighbourhood had a positive impression of local courts.

A recent survey showed 78 per cent of those residents felt positively
toward their neighbourhood's new community court, Berman said.