Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jan 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

CHIEF JUSTICE PROMOTES 'COMMUNITY COURT' FOR B.C.

United States-Inspired Plan Would Deal With Low-Level Offenders Who 
Have Drug Or Mental-Health Problems

On the morning after the Conservative victory, B.C. Supreme Court 
Chief Justice Don Brenner rose from his breakfast and made a pitch 
for a new "community court" in Vancouver to deal with low-level offences.

The idea is one born in the U.S. that envisions separating the 
violent and career crook from the offender who is in court because of 
a drug, mental-health or social challenge.

If you solve those problems, you can often put an end to these petty 
but publicly expensive misdeeds.

Rather than processing and reprocessing through the costly criminal 
legal system those who commit vandalism, small-time theft or some 
other misdemeanour because of some handicap, community courts are a 
way of focusing attention on those offenders and getting them back in 
the saddle.

These offenders would be channeled to a single community court 
building (initially in downtown Vancouver) housing the judge as well 
as a cadre of social service and mental health services.

They would focus on these offenders in the belief that addressing 
their health or social problems will curtail their crime.

As Brenner put it: "It's a question of what that person needs. How do 
you turn that life around?"

His audience Tuesday at the Downtown Vancouver Association-sponsored 
meeting was more than a score of merchants, two city councillors, a 
few social-service types, a couple of city hall planners, a 
choreographer from England.

There was a lot of skepticism around the room -- many had businesses 
in the Downtown Eastside and they have heard a lot of promises. What 
about treatment centres? they wanted to know.

Little point in having a special court with highfalutin ideas about 
solving problems if you don't have the addiction facilities and other 
infrastructure in place.

"You almost have to start there," Brenner agreed.

But he couldn't answer the question.

Would offenders be sentenced to community restitution in the 
neighbourhoods where they committed their crime? Maybe.

Again, Brenner said that was the kind of detail to be worked out.

He opined that he liked the idea of offenders doing community service 
in a special costume so people could see justice at work.

I joked that harlequin and dunce caps would be a good outfit -- maybe 
have them singing, Workin' on a Chain Gang...

Brenner was horrified.

Someone with more gravitas suggested maybe that wasn't the right tack 
and Brenner was eager to say that those are the kinds of issues the 
community must be involved in deciding.

"There has to be the will and the community has got to decide it's 
worthwhile doing," he said. "There seems to be widespread support, 
but we have to keep it moving along."

To Brenner, there was no question about this issue: We have to try it 
given how much current disorder, petty crime and squandered legal 
resources can be traced to the same offenders.

"Yes, the issues are very challenging," he said. "But I think it's 
fair to say we haven't done a great job so far."

That's what was important about his performance, I think -- there are 
not many places where a chief judge gets out there to talk 
shoulder-to-shoulder with the public before a morning's proceedings, 
and is willing to at least engage in dialogue.

Especially on an issue this controversial.

A community court will require this province to invest in more and 
different treatment services that are expensive. There will be a lot 
of potholes along the way as this new system is hammered into form 
and there will be no short-term political payoffs or success stories 
for politicians to ride into the next election.

Brenner says the court is about the redirecting of existing resources 
and will save money in the long term. It makes sense, he says.

And I think he's right.

But in the real world, that means the independent silos of government 
departments -- health, justice, social services, housing -- must all 
develop new ways of dealing with each other. And all for a small 
constituency for whom there is little empathy.

Creating the new system will meet resistance.

And there will be foot-dragging among those who disagree with the 
compassion at the heart of it -- those who believe being an addict 
isn't an excuse for robbery, those who believe you do the crime, do 
the time, don't blame your mum and dad.

I count the new prime minister-designate, Stephen Harper, among that 
crowd; those who believe the answer is universally tougher sentences 
and bigger sticks. He may prove me wrong.

Brenner didn't have many answers on specifics, because none exist 
yet, and he wasn't tipping his hand if he knew there would be money 
in the coming provincial budget to push the project forward.

We will see how well his former benchmate Attorney-General Wally 
Oppal has sold the pilot to cabinet and Treasury Board.

Brenner seemed hopeful.

Still, I worry the province will abandon such initiatives in the face 
of the new government's feared tough-love justice stance.

I guess we'll see.

By the way, in case you wondered, Brenner didn't vote Monday.

"I may have to appoint judges who will supervise recounts," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom