The government’s senior criminologist urged the reactivation of a dormant drug treatment court after new research showed that about one in three prison inmates was first convicted on drug-related charges.
Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit (CJRPU), Cheryl Willoughby, said the specialised court could play a crucial role in addressing substance abuse issues and reducing the reoffending rate, now estimated at 63 per cent.
“We had the drug treatment court, which is now dormant,” Willoughby said. “That court has a lot of potential in terms of identifying persons who need help with substance abuse problems and who they can monitor on a more intimate level so that these problems that would have led to them facing the court are addressed in a therapeutic way.”
The government study on recidivism revealed that 11 per cent of inmates were rearrested for drug-related offences, including 24 for drug possession and six for possession of drug apparatus. The research also found that substance abuse accounted for 32 per cent of first convictions among inmates, highlighting drugs’ significant role in criminal behaviour.
According to Willoughby, the court previously coordinated efforts between social agencies, therapists, and the judiciary to provide structured rehabilitation, particularly for first-time offenders.
“You have persons from all the social agencies working with the magistrate in order to keep people away from drugs. There was frequent testing and there was that level of accountability,” she said.
The criminologist emphasised the court’s importance for young offenders: “I’m hoping that the Drug Treatment Court can be reactivated so that the young persons in our society who are experiencing problems with substance abuse can be given an opportunity to change their behaviours as well as have treatment that may not be available to them if they were not part of the treatment programme.”
“I believe everyone should be given an opportunity to turn his or her life around, and if we can have these systems in place within our penal system, then we can see persons being able to access the necessary help in order to change,” she added.
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