Edmonton Drug Treatment & Community Restoration Court

Drug treatment courts are a real phenomenon. The first drug court was developed in 1989 in Miami, Florida. Judge Herbert M. Klein, troubled by the disabling effects that drug offences were wreaking upon Dade County courts, became determined to "solve the problem of larger numbers of people on drugs" (Miami's Drug Court: A Different Approach, 1993) [In the Spotlight; Drug Courts, NIJ].  When the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (“UNODC”) Legal Advisory Programme commenced operations in 1996 there were no drug treatment courts outside the United States. Since then, UNODC has built a practitioner network, which enabled initiatives such as the UNODC DTC Expert Working Group and its work outputs. The report of that working group (from its 1998 meeting in Vienna) has been used as a guide to establish drug treatment courts within and outside of the United States.

 

As noted by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, “The mission of drug courts is to stop the abuse of alcohol and other drugs and related criminal activity by offenders. Drug courts handle cases involving drug-addicted offenders through an extensive supervision and treatment program. In exchange for successful completion of the program, the court may dismiss the original charge, reduce or set aside a sentence, offer some lesser penalty, or offer a combination of these.

As of November 2006, there were 1,665 drug courts operating in the United States, and 386 more were in the planning phases. Currently, 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, two Federal Districts and 115 tribal programs have drug courts that are in operation or are being planned.” Source: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/enforce/drugcourt.html.

 

Canada’s first drug treatment court opened in Toronto in 1998, with the second court in Vancouver commencing operations in 2001. The Edmonton DTC Steering Committee adopted many of the features and elements of both of those important pilot programs. It was the stated intent of the Government of Canada that those two courts be testing grounds for a national program. The Edmonton DTC Steering Committee has taken that intention seriously, and it continues to inform decisions of the Edmonton DTC Program Management Committee. A number of principles and program elements were adopted from the Toronto and Vancouver DTCs. Information and advice was sought from and graciously provided by the Vancouver DTC program and its core team. The same is true of the Toronto team.

 

Drug treatment courts are not new, but a drug treatment court in Alberta and in the Edmonton Capital Region is a new concept. The benefits of the history of the development of this type of court program, in Canada and worldwide, have been examined and form the underlying foundation for the Edmonton program. However, the Edmonton program has features and incorporates principles that distinguish it from the “typical” drug court and to a certain extent from the current models in Canada. In particular, this distinction is found in the incorporation of restorative justice and community justice aspects.

 

The Edmonton Drug Treatment Court (“EDTC”) Program is a program of the Provincial Court of Alberta, yet is connected to special programs of the Federal government (the Federal DTC Funding Program and the Canada Drug Strategy). While the Program is subject to Federal DTC funding program rules for purposes of obtaining Federal grants, it is still an independent program of the Provincial Court and the Government of Alberta, as an operational element of the institution of the Provincial Court. The Edmonton DTC Program is also contained within the criminal justice system, and operates pursuant to the requirements of the Criminal Code, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, other Constitutional and statutory foundations, and the common law. Thus, the DTC program operates within the same legal framework that governs all criminal court proceedings in Alberta Courts. The Edmonton DTC Program does not purport to change the law, but rather operate squarely within it.

 

As noted by the (U.S.) National Drug Court Institute [DWI Courts and DWI/Drug Courts: Reducing Recidivism, Saving Lives; source: http://www.ndci.org/dwi_drug_court.htm: “Today there is irrefutable evidence that drug courts are achieving what they set out to do. In a series of critical reviews published from 1998 to 2001 of over 120 evaluations of drug courts located throughout the nation, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University determined that “drug courts provide the most comprehensive and effective control of drug-using offenders’ criminality and drug usage while under the court’s supervision. Drug courts provide closer, more comprehensive supervision and much more frequent drug testing and monitoring during the program than other forms of community supervision. More importantly, drug use and criminal behavior are substantially reduced while offenders are participating in drug court” (Belenko, 1998; 2001). To put it bluntly, “we know that drug courts outperform virtually all other strategies that have been attempted for drug-involved offenders” (Marlowe, DeMatteo, & Festinger, 2003). Perhaps the most important finding is that offenders who become part of a drug court program are succeeding upon completion. Comparisons with other groups reveal much higher retention rates and lower recidivism and drug-use rates for drug court participants both during the life of a program and after the program ends (Belenko, 1998; 2001).”