Pubdate: Wed, 10 Oct 2007
Source: Quesnel Cariboo Observer (CN BC)
Contact:  2007 Quesnel Cariboo Observer
Website: http://www.quesnelobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1260
Author: Tom Fletcher

THIS IS YOUR CRIME PROBLEM ON DRUGS

VICTORIA - The Interior town of Williams Lake has done a good job of 
highlighting the problem of "prolific offenders" in recent weeks. 
Instead of playing down its distinction as B.C.'s crime capital as 
previous honourees Surrey, New Westminster and North Vancouver have 
done before, Williams Lake Mayor Scott Nelson has used police 
statistics to tackle the problem head-on.

He's put the message out forcefully that the numbers are driven by a 
handful of hardcore repeat offenders who, especially in a small town, 
can generate a crime wave all by themselves. But the same story could 
be told in communities around the province, and it's usually a story 
about what people will do to get drugs.

In Williams Lake and elsewhere they're demanding repeat offenders be 
kept in custody until they are sentenced, so at least they can't rack 
up new crimes while awaiting trial. While that's an appealing idea, 
B.C. Solicitor General John Les reminds me of its major flaw.

Career criminals prefer to maximize time "in remand" awaiting trial, 
especially if the evidence against them is a slam dunk. In a 
time-honoured (and naive) tradition, judges kindly give them 
two-for-one credit for time served while they are still technically innocent.

Holding suspects creates another problem for the B.C. correctional 
system, which runs addiction programs for inmates.

"The reality is they spend more time there in remand than actually 
sentenced, and when they're there on remand, there's not much we can 
do with them, because there's the whole presumption of innocence 
thing," Les told me.

"You can't impose anything on them. And then when they're sentenced, 
typically they don't spend a whole lot of time there anyway."

Another popular notion is the threat of harsh sentences will deter 
the kind of impulsive property crime that plagues communities. But 
does it really?

One sobering study done in 1992 examined the most direct of 
consequences, delivered by Irish Republican Army enforcers to 
juvenile car thieves in Northern Ireland: "kneecapping," or shooting 
the thief in the leg with a handgun. Did this reduce the number of 
car thefts? No. Other studies suggest 80 per cent of car thieves 
believe they will never be caught. For those desperate for drugs, 
authorities are looking toward the community court or "drug court" 
model for solutions.

Les has high hopes for B.C.'s community court pilot project, due to 
open next spring in Vancouver. Its goal is to deal with offenders 
quickly, giving them one shot at serving a sentence in a treatment 
program before going into the regular system.

Les says it can work in large and small centres.

Last week Ottawa launched its latest anti-drug strategy, amid much 
squawking in the big-city media about a U.S.-style war on drugs, and 
the allegedly urgent need for more defeatist pest-holes along the 
lines of Vancouver's unsafe injection site.

About half of the Stephen Harper government's $64 million anti-drug 
strategy is supposed to be directed to treatment programs. Given the 
Conservatives' ideological rigidity, that probably means 
abstinence-based programs, which by happy coincidence are the only 
ones that actually work.

How will repeat offenders be made to stick to programs, and how will 
the public be kept safe? Les says he'll have more to say on that in a 
few weeks.

Those bait cars

The studies mentioned above are cited in an excellent website run by 
a group of U.S. professors, called the Center for Problem-Oriented 
Policing (www.popcenter.org).

Among the illustrations on the site is a frame from B.C.'s notorious 
'bait car boy' video. You may have seen it: the meth-addicted serial 
car thief screaming "Oncoming!" as he runs red lights at top speed in 
his latest ride, while trying unsuccessfully to fire a big handgun 
out the window.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom