Review of drug treatment court prompted by low caseload

CONCERN ABOUT the volume of cases led to the current review of the Dublin drug treatment court, Minister of State for Justice John Curran told the Dáil.

He said the Minister, Dermot Ahern, was anxious that no decision about the court’s future should be taken without a thorough examination of the facts.

“There are significant question marks over the Dublin drug treatment court relating to the throughput and graduation levels, which have not come close to achieving what was intended on the establishment of the programme,” said Mr Curran.

He said the court’s mission was to provide supervised treatment, education and rehabilitation for offenders with drug problems. The programme lasted for a minimum of 12 to 18 months.

When it was established in 2001, the planning committee had envisaged a potential enrolment of 100 participants in the first year, he added. Since then, 228 people had participated in the programme, with only 27 graduates.

A further 154 persons were referred but found unsuitable.

“This is a restorative justice initiative and success of such programmes should not and cannot be assessed simply in terms of throughput,” said Mr Curran.

“Nonetheless, it appears from the figures that some adjustment of . . . operations is essential.”

Mr Curran said the review was close to completion and examined best practice elsewhere to see how the court’s throughput could be increased. “Officials at a senior level have met with representatives of the judiciary and other relevant agencies,” he added.

Mr Curran was replying to Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte, who said the court was a progressive innovation aimed at the rehabilitation of people with addiction problems who had committed non-violent crimes.

It only dealt with clients referred from two postal districts in the north inner city and was established as a permanent court in 2006. Its aim was the reduction of crime through rehabilitation of the offender, but it did not exclude punishment.

“In so far as I can see, the only reason the throughput is not higher are the obstacles in the way of expanding the remit of the drug treatment court to include the entire city,” Mr Rabbitte added.

“These obstacles pertain to the inability of other agencies, such as the HSE, to provide the necessary support services, but they can be resolved if the political will exists to do so.”