HELPING SET STREET PEOPLE STRAIGHT

As was seen in downtown Kelowna this month, police are more than capable of
sweeping up a street crime problem.

Whoever falls through the gaps in drug treatment, housing or mental health
can always find a home in the criminal justice system.

But the local John Howard Society, which works to re-habilitate prisoners in
the system, is working on a plan to use the strengths of cops and courts to
guide qualified offenders back to the community's resources.

Shelley Cook, local director of the John Howard Society, says courts and
prisons are perhaps not the best answer for police pick-ups.

Not if the reasons they committed crimes were based on social factors such
as addiction or mental health.

Statistics show 30 per cent of prisoners have mental health issues and 70
per cent of them also struggle with addictions.

She said it's obvious a large sector of those collectively termed
"criminals" are those who didn't get what they needed from community social
services.

"What we are doing is not working, so what do we have to lose by trying
something new?" she said.

Cook is seeking input from 28 groups in Kelowna that already deal with drug
addicts, mental health needs or both.

Her plan is to engage the police and courts to find treatment alternatives
to sentencing.

If addictions or mental health are factors in a crime, the case could be
diverted to a help desk where professionals could determine exactly what the
offenders needs are and how to address them.

"It's a problem-solving process that tries to use the resources and
expertise in a community and in the most effective way," she says.

"The ultimate goal is to reduce crime by addressing the underlying factors."

It costs roughly $85,000 per year to house a male offender in prison; more
for women and youths.

And that is simply a human warehouse keeping criminals among criminals.

It's far better to spend that money and time working toward a resolution to
the problems that got them in the criminal justice system in the first
place, she said.

Similar projects have been proposed for the community, using a co-ordinated
one-stop shopping centre to help people find housing, health care, mental
health care and either entitled benefits or employment that works best.

Cook's idea uses the same principle with the natural strengths of the
criminal justice system to identify those most desperate.

The resources already exist in the community, they are already on the bus,
they just need a driver.

The difficult part will be capturing the imagination of police, Crown
counsel, judges, probation officers, parole officers and others.

She said there is precedent in drug and mental health courts in larger
cities that work in a similar way.

She is also counting on the experience and name of the John Howard Society
to find its place.

"We speak the language of corrections and we are located in the community,"
she says.

"We see ourselves as a bridge between the two cultures. This a way to
exploit that."