Pubdate: Tue, 09 Mar 2004
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Glenn Bohn

GETTING TO THE ROOTS OF STREET CRIME

A Committee Will Try To Find Alternatives To Jail

VANCOUVER - Stopping street crime in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside by 
addressing its root causes is the goal of a new 12-member committee 
unveiled Monday by B.C. Attorney-General Geoff Plant at B.C.'s busiest 
courthouse.

The Street Crime Working Group is being asked to recommend better ways to 
deal with repeat offenders, especially the drug addicts and mentally ill 
people who are continually committing crimes such as mischief, drug 
dealing, theft and burglary.

By March 2005 the committee of justice system insiders and senior 
bureaucrats is to propose "a new criminal justice response to street crime" 
that identifies which offenders would benefit most from treatment programs 
and alternatives to court.

When reporters questioned Plant at the government-organized news conference 
in a courtroom at 222 Main, Plant refused to be pinned down on exactly what 
kind of new treatment programs he envisions. The only example he pointed to 
was a two-year-old drug treatment court in Vancouver that allows cocaine 
and heroin users to avoid jail if they go through a treatment program and 
offer drug-free urine samples.

Nor would Plant make any specific funding commitments for new or expanded 
treatment programs, or say whether he favours mandatory treatment programs.

"It's too soon to speculate on any particular initiative," he said.

But the attorney-general was clear on the kind of offender he wants the 
Street Crime Working Group to focus on.

Unfurling two rolls of paper so long they reached the floor he said:

"This is the criminal record for a man we'll call David," Plant declared. 
"It's someone who is in his mid-30s. He's not Bonny or Clyde. He's not 
Butch Cassidy. He's not the Great Train Robber. He's an unemployed man, 
mentally ill, with serious substance abuse problems."

According to Plant, that man already has 81 convictions for property crimes 
and has also faced another 30 property-related charges that were later 
"stayed" or dropped by prosecutors.

"The police deal with him almost on a daily basis and the courts deal with 
him far too often," Plant said.

"He is, unfortunately, the perfect example of the kind of chronic offender 
that judges deal with in their courtrooms over and over and over again. 
David is caught in a cycle of drug addiction, mental health problems, 
crimes, courts and incarceration."

Plant claimed the criminal justice system imposes appropriate sentences on 
most criminals.

"But the fact is, the courts are not always the most effective place to 
find long-term solutions for the problems that lead to criminal behaviour," 
he said. "In many cases, the best way to to improve public safety is to 
develop additional tools and alternatives to court."

The B.C. government-selected committee is supposed to find those new 
"tools." The committee members are:

Chief Provincial Court Judge Carol Baird Ellan, Elisabeth Burgess, of the 
attorney-general ministry's criminal justice branch, criminal lawyer Ian 
Donaldson, Isobel Donovan of the Vancouver Agreement on the city's hard 
drug problem, Vancouver Police Inspector Val Harrison, Heather Hay of the 
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, lawyer Peter Leask, of the Canadian Bar 
Association, Alan Markwart, an assistant deputy minister in the B.C. 
children and family development ministry, Dan Mulligan of the 
attorney-general ministry's criminal justice branch, Allan Schoom of B.C. 
Corrections, Stuart Whitely of the federal justice department and David 
Winkler, an assistant deputy minister in the B.C. attorney-general ministry.

Baird Ellan, the chief judge of the provincial court system that deals with 
about 90 per cent of all of the criminal charges in B.C., said the courts 
alone cannot deal with the problem of repeat offenders who have substance 
abuse, mental health and other complex personal problems.

"Most repeat offenders spend a lot of time in jail," she said. 
"Unfortunately, jail does not deter or rehabilitate many of them."

Vancouver Councillor Tim Stevenson, who attended the news conference as 
deputy mayor, suggested Victoria shouldn't wait one year for the 
recommendations.

"In the meantime, we've got a real problem on the streets, and crystal meth 
getting worse every day and the government has made huge cutbacks," said 
Stevenson, who spent a decade in the Downtown Eastside as a church minister.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom