Los tribunales especializados en drogas reducen la probabilidad de reincidencia

Vancover Sun, 07 November 2011, By Gerry Bellett

Offenders diverted to Vancouver’s Drug Treatment Court reoffend less than people processed through the normal court system, an Simon Fraser University researcher told the Canadian Centre for Drug Abuse National Conference in November.

Julian Somers, associate professor of health sciences, said the finding was based on a study of people handled by the Drug Treatment Court (DTC) between 2001 and 2008 compared to a similar group handled by the ordinary court.

The study found there was also a 50-per-cent reduction in drug-related offences by those attending the DTC than by those attending regular court.

“The DTC group declined by one offence per person per year. There was a drop in the comparison group, too, but it was only half as large,” he said.

“What it tells you is that as a mechanism for reducing offending, the Drug Treatment Court is twice as effective as the alternative,” he said.

Canada only has six Drug Treatment Courts. By comparison there are 2,400 such courts in the United States, he said.

Somers said the state of Washington estimates that by diverting offenders to drug treatment courts and treatment centres it will save $2 billion in prison costs over the next 20 years. Other states that use similar programs are Texas and California, he said.

“They have looked at the implications of sentencing and realized they are unable to afford the cost of incarcerating those people. Right now we’re beginning to have that discussion here. If we follow their example and seriously consider alternatives to prison construction we can benefit from their years of experience,” he said.

However, Canada doesn’t have enough addiction treatment specialists in the civil system to handle such a diversion, so it’s time to consider training more, he said.

“Over a 10-year period it would have a more effective outcome and be considerably cheaper than building prisons.”

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.