Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2006
Source: Oak Bay News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Oak Bay News
Contact:  http://www.oakbaynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1346
Author: Brennan Clarke
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

COURTS CAN'T ADDRESS DRUG CRIMES, SAYS FORMER JUDGE

The solution to rampant property crime, small-time armed robberies 
and street-level drug dealing lies in a community-based system of 
justice and not in stiffer jail sentences for repeat offenders, B.C. 
Attorney General Wally Oppal told local business leaders last week.

Speaking at a Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce lunch Wednesday, 
Oppal said that drug-related crime is a social problem that has to be 
addressed by the community as a whole, not only the justice system.

"We can't let the judges be out there all alone solving these 
problems," he said. "We have to get involved as a community. This is 
not a job the courts can do alone.

"We need to start treating the root causes of crime so we don't have 
the revolving door syndrome we're now suffering from."

Oppal, a long-time judge who moved from the provincial court bench to 
provincial politics last year, announced that his ministry to 
developing a community court system is modelled on similar programs 
in more than two dozen locales in the U.S. and Canada.

By combining the penalties under the justice system with mandatory 
addiction counselling, mental health treatment or other 
rehabilitation tools deemed appropriate, cities such as Reno, Nevada 
and Portland Oregon have achieved dramatic reductions in car theft 
and other forms of property crime.

"We could send them to jail, but they're just going to come out 
worse," Oppal told about four dozen attendees. "If the person is 
suitable for treatment, we need to put that person through the system 
immediately."

In other so-called community court systems, offenders who refuse to 
undergo community-supervised rehabilitation would face the full force 
of the justice system, he added.

"It's not a soft approach," Oppal said outside the meeting. "If 
people are not amenable to that type of situation, they would feel 
the full force of the law."

Statistics show that about 90 per cent of property crimes are 
drug-related, and the bulk of those are the work of repeat offenders.

Stiffer sentences for violent crime aren't effective because 
criminals operate on the assumption that they'll never have to pay the penalty.

"The person who commits violent crime is not a rocket scientist," 
Oppal said. "They do these things on the basis that they're not going 
to get caught."

A community court system would require involvement from the Ministry 
of Health, provincial health authorities, the B.C. Corrections branch 
and law enforcement, said Oppal.

Premier Gordon Campbell and the rest of the B.C. Liberal caucus are 
committed to exploring new ways to deal with chronic offenders, but 
Oppal said it will be at least six months before he can attach a 
timeframe to the initiative. He also said there's a recognition that 
a community court system would cost more in the short-term but 
hopefully save money on policing and health care in the long run.

"It will require more resources, but it will also require the 
redirection of existing resources," he said.

Victoria police chief Paul Battershill, who attended Wednesday's 
luncheon, applauded Oppal's community court proposal.

"I know that some of the Ontario drug courts mandate maintaining 
supervision over the offender for a period of several years," he 
said. "I think it's a much more accountable system. There's more 
accountability for everyone."

Despite alarm over the increase in property crime, gun violence and 
other major crimes are on the decline in B.C., Oppal said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom