HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Drug Courts

Alcohol and drugs are fuelling youth crime in Christchurch. One judge's
vision of tackling the problem through a special drug court is about to
become a reality. Yvonne Martin reports.

A chance encounter between a Nelson judge and a young heroin addict two
years ago has inspired a bold plan for young offenders to shake their drug
ties.

In mid-1999, at a Melbourne treatment centre, Judge John Walker met a
15-year-old boy whose body was ravaged by years of heroin addiction. He was
told by a resident drug counsellor that the youth was unlikely to survive
another month. The lad was barely-living proof for Walker that New Zealand
had to tackle its drug problems early.

"The addiction to heroin was so debilitating, he was really a walking
dead," he says.

He does not know what has happened to the youth but the memory of his
encounter still troubles him.

Walker's travels to see how other countries manage drug problems, and high
proportions of drug-dependent offenders here, have led to a new court for
youths with alcohol and drug addictions.

Based on similar courts in the United States, Australia, and the United
Kingdom, the Youth Drug Court will be launched in Christchurch on March 14.
The one-year pilot will target juvenile offenders who, by 15 to 17, have
committed many crimes to support their habits, mainly alcohol and cannabis.

The treatment-based drug court is a first for New Zealand, and one of the
first concepts to emerge from a ministerial task force looking at reducing
youth crime. The group's blueprint for addressing youth offending, which
rose 55 per cent in the '90s, is expected to be released by Justice
Minister Phil Goff next month.

If the new court works, it will divert youth recidivists from their
criminal apprenticeships of looting and lying. Where possible, it will get
them back into education. It will hopefully reduce levels of reoffending
(an estimated

80 per cent of offenders have drug dependencies), turn young lives around
and be introduced nationally as a model.

But it is not an easy time to be pushing through such a change, especially
with the crippled state of Canterbury's mental health services. Walker
recognises that to succeed, the pilot will need immediate access to good
treatment programmes, something lacking in Christchurch and about to get
worse with the imminent closure of Queen Mary Hospital's youth residential
programme at Hanmer Springs - the only one in the region.

To work, the pilot will also need at-court drug clinicians to assess
youths, another factor thrown into doubt by the crisis at Hillmorton
Hospital, which will affect its Youth Speciality Services.

Despite the problems, Walker is forging ahead because they are not strong
enough reasons to abort the trial. Besides, if the pilot highlights gaps in
youth services, then that is another useful outcome, he says.

Christchurch was chosen for the pilot because, unlike other cities, it has
only one youth court. Greater Wellington, for example, with a similar
population, has four.

Each Friday up to 55 youths are pushed through the Christchurch Youth
Court's revolving doors, some for serious adult crimes. Just this week a
16-year-old was biding time in the police cells, facing charges of rape,
aggravated robbery, sexual violation, indecent assault, and abduction.

A scoping exercise by the Ministry of Justice in November identified plenty
of potential candidates for the court, but the pilot will be kept to about
50 youths in the first year.

Walker has been a district court and youth court judge for seven years,
sharing the Nelson-Blenheim circuit with a second judge. Before that, he
was a barrister in Wellington, specialising in medical cases.

He was born in Donaghadee, a fishing village on the east coast of Northern
Ireland, to a grocer father and a mother who juggled three children with
work as a domestic servant.

The pioneering family emigrated to New Zealand to start life anew when
Walker was aged three.

"It was a brave thing for parents to do from a small fishing village, to
get on a ship and come to New Zealand," he says.

"Anything I do that might be a bit frightening or intimidating is nothing
compared to what they must have gone through."

Until now the efforts of judges like Walker in tackling youth problems have
been hampered by the lack of places available on treatment programmes.
Inevitably, the problem comes back to funding and who pays.

"The interdepartmental debate as to the source of funding - Corrections
saying that it is a health issue, Child, Youth and Family Services saying
that it is a health issue, and vice versa - is a paralysing debate," he says.

For the pilot, government departments have agreed to allocate staff, such
as CYFS providing a youth justice co-ordinator and the police a prosecutor.
A Justice official will monitor the drug court and its effect on youth
reoffending.

"There is a very large commitment of resource. I have no idea what the
total bill is," says Walker. (The ministry was similarly unable to quote
costings.)

"I have a firm view that whatever you spend on these people is a fraction
of what it costs the country not to deal with it effectively in terms of
what it costs victims of continual offending, what it costs to imprison
them, the costs of family breakup. It just goes on and on."

Walker, who returns to Wellington to live in June, will commute to
Christchurch every second Thursday to be the court's sole judge. Continuity
of judges to monitor progress and build relationships with the drug team is
crucial, he says.

But that still leaves the prickly problem of no residential treatment
programme to send young addicts away from friends and factors influencing
their offending.

"There are programmes in the North Island but it is not ideal because you
get kids that are reluctant to go far away," says Walker.

"The ideal would be a residential treatment programme in Christchurch,
certainly in the South Island."

He is unaware at this stage how Hillmorton's difficulties will affect drug
clinicians' assessment of drug court offenders. Similar problems over
resources have struck United Kingdom and Australian drug courts. The UK
overcame its problems by drafting a 10-year government drug strategy. An
anti-drugs co-ordinator is directly responsible to Cabinet for spending the
drug strategy budget.

New Zealand could also benefit from such a co-ordinated approach, says Walker.

His drug court will be adopting the best parts of overseas models, while
developing its own culture.

As the presiding judge, he is unlikely to emulate the showmanship of a
colleague he saw in Florida dealing with an offender who returned two
contaminated urine samples.

"In front of everybody, before the kid was even removed from the courtroom,
he had his belt taken off him, his stud taken out of his tongue. He was
shackled around his legs and the chain went to his handcuffs and he
shuffled off," says Judge Walker.

"It brings a tear to your eye when you see it for the first time."

More his style is the banter he heard in a Dublin drug court where a judge
was hearing the case of a 40-year-old alcoholic mum facing a fraud charge.

"Have you got any drink on you today?" asked the judge.

"No, I only drink on special occasions," she replied.

"This would be a special occasion would it? I can smell you from here," he
quipped.

Sydney has an adult drug court and is trialling a drug court for youths.
Melbourne has a diversion scheme where non-violent offenders with drug
problems are offered early treatment by way of bail conditions.

Judge Walker's visit to Melbourne proved that he was not the only one
haunted by the terrors of heroin.

A Melbourne children's court judge told him that he could picture the faces
of numerous children he had dealt with who had died from heroin overdoses.

"It gave me a great deal of anxiety about what would happen if the heroin
problem jumped the ditch," says Walker.

"There didn't seem to be any particular reason why it wouldn't. I don't
think we should be complacent because people say there is only alcohol and
cannabis among young people here."

While judges have a role to play in attempting to change behaviour and
prevent reoffending, communities must also take some responsibility, says
Judge Walker.

In the seven years his Nelson youth court's jurisdiction has covered Golden
Bay and Murchison, he cannot remember a case from those areas.

"I cannot believe they don't have problems there, but they are clearly
being dealt with in those communities. There's a lesson in all of that."

Plenty of young offenders eligible

A confidential report is understood to have found no shortage of candidates
for the drug court.

A scouting exercise by the Ministry of Justice late last year found no
shortage of potential candidates for Christchurch's new drug court.

A ministry adviser sat in on weekly sessions at Christchurch's Youth Court
in November and looked for candidates likely to qualify for the one-year pilot.

The ministry refuses to release a confidential report she wrote for the
working party behind the pilot. But the exercise apparently turned up
plenty of candidates with alcohol and drug dependencies - an even mix of
Maori and European.

The drug court, initiated by Nelson-based Judge John Walker, expects to
deal with up to 50 youths in its first year.

Its target group, according to Judge Walker, is top-end recidivist
offenders who commit the lion's share of youth crime.

"If you target that group, you can potentially make a huge difference," he
says.

Police, youth advocates, and other agencies will help identify teenagers
whose addictions are contributing to their offending.

Youths will be assessed by at-court drug clinicians. If eligible for the
drug court, they will be remanded for full assessment and a treatment plan.

How well they stick to the plan is taken into consideration when their
offences are finally dealt with by the drug court. Sex offences will be
excluded from the court.

Police Youth Aid co-ordinator Sergeant Chris Roper, who will be prosecuting
in the drug court, expects to see a mixture of recidivist and lighter
offenders.

"You will get a cross-section from kids with quite significant drug and
alcohol issues to some just starting down that path," he says.

Chris Roper believes hardened recidivist offenders with substance-abuse
problems will be the most difficult to reach.

"Generally speaking, in my experience, they are not prepared to address
those issues because they don't see them as a problem," he says.

"To a degree, a number seem to be quite enjoying that lifestyle."

One youth with drug issues, who has just turned 15, has already racked up
50 charges for burglary, car conversion, dishonesty, and escaping custody.

Of five youths held in police cells early this year - because secure
accommodation was not available for them at the Kingslea Residential Centre
- - all had drug and alcohol problems.

The lack of residential treatment options remains Chris Roper's biggest
concern about the new court.

"It is incredibly difficult to treat adolescents for drug and alcohol
problems, particularly those involved in criminal offending."

Some of Christchurch's most notable repeat offenders are well known to
police by their 10th birthday.

"They are very few in number, but quite prolific and very hard to deal
with," he says.

Youth advocates agree that young offenders' denial of their alcohol and
drug problems will be a huge challenge for the court.

Barrister Adrienne Edwards says youths mask their problems and it is only
in family group conferences that the truth emerges.

"As youth advocates we totally support anything that Judge Walker can do to
get these kids help, particularly at the beginning," she says.

"The biggest trouble I can see is that kids will not admit needing it."

Fellow advocate and Christchurch city councillor Alister James has found
that other young offenders, fed up with the "high" life, reach a stage
where they are crying out for help.

He is now lobbying to make sure a safety net exists when Queen Mary's
residential programme folds.