TOUGHER SENTENCES NEEDED: CRIME PANEL

Judges continue to hand out far too lenient sentences to chronic
repeat offenders, a regional forum on crime and drugs heard Wednesday.

While reforms are under way - largely led by civic governments and
police forces - the justice system's flaccid response to drug-fuelled
crime remains a major weak link in solving the problem, said several
experts gathered by Metro Vancouver.

Daryl Plecas, a criminologist at the University College of the Fraser
Valley, said major gains would be made if even just the "super
prolific" offenders with more than 30 prior convictions got longer jail terms.

Police have watched local crime rates plummet when even a few key
repeat offenders are taken off the streets.

Plecas said 46 per cent of prolific offenders will be reconvicted
before their sentence ends. He said longer terms would put the onus
on the offender to demonstrate why they should be granted earlier or
partial release.

"It's intolerable and something has to be done," said Dave Park,
retired chief economist of the Vancouver Board of Trade. "Society is
no longer prepared to tolerate the level of criminality being put upon us."

But getting longer sentences remains a challenge.

Judges are shackled by case law and past precedents, panelists said.
Going against that means their ruling will likely be appealed and overturned.

Urgent interventions are also often hamstrung by the laws or the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

SFU criminology professor Ray Corrado gave the example of a
13-year-old prostitute on the streets who is drug addicted and being pimped.

"You can't arrest that kid," he said, adding the current legal
framework bars putting her in secure detention, even though everyone
knows the girl is in "severe danger."

Tom Hetherington, addiction services manager for Pacific Community
Resources Society, argued more jail time will make the problem worse.

"If that was the case, the United States would be one of the safest
places in the world," he said.

Corrado said that strategy can work but "comes at a huge cost."

Vancouver's pilot community court, to launch in the new year, is
hoped to deliver real change in how drug-addicted chronic offenders
are handled by the justice system.

But panelists agreed successs will hinge on how well the provincial
government does in setting up wraparound services that would help
offenders get drug treatment, counselling, employment and housing assistance.

"Maybe that will be a prototype for similar initiatives in other
parts of the region," Park said.

Several forum participants said far too little has been done so far
to ramp up drug treatment programs and Hetherington suggested B.C.
impose a five-cent tax on alcoholic drinks to help pay for them.

The forum also heard youth aren't the main source of trouble with crime.

"The fact is youth are responsible for an infintessimally small
amount of crime," said Plecas, who said the average age of a
convicted criminal in B.C. is over 30.

On the drug front, youth are increasingly giving the cold shoulder to
dangerous drugs like methamphetamines.

"They have seen the consequences of long-term methamphetamine use and
they are backing away from it," Hetherington said.

Preventing kids from turning into chronic drug-addicted offenders,
Corrado suggested, begins not even in school but in their mothers'
wombs. Many are victims of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, he said, while
others are autistic or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder
stemming from abuse.

Thirty per cent of youth in prison are aboriginals, but make up just
two per cent of the population.

Intensive treatment of at-risk families would go far to help, he suggested.

Plecas said he's been a long-term prohibitionist "until recently" but
is now re-thinking the merits of partial decriminalization of drugs.