Calgary’s Drug Treatment Court program renewed
Posted Mar 22, 2011 3:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Province has renewed its support of Calgary’s drug treatment court, a program which involves court-supervised counselling and rehabilitation of non-violent addicts rather than jail time.
“Decreased costs of policing, incarceration and of course decreased property crimes,” said Justice Minister Verlyn Olson, in announcing the rationale of contributing $600,000 to the program which was originally launched five years ago with seed money from the City of Calgary. “
“Crime affects everyone,” added Olson who says the benefits of the program are obvious for program grads as well as the community.
“If you can take people off the drugs and sometimes show that” (some are) “mentally ill and need medication and support, at the end of the day you’re getting people back into where they’re productive in society and you’re reducing crime,” Police Chief Rick Hanson told 660News, adding that such programs allow police to focus on the real bad guys. “And that’s what it’s all about.”
A grad of the program, Darren — who’s been in and out of jail for 15 years — says getting clean through the process saved his life.
“I never had a good experience in my life with a judge, and I didn’t know if this would be any different,” Darren told 660News. “But it became really personal, and so these were my support people. They were trying to help me succeed.”
He says drug court put an end to his life of addiction-fuelled crime.
Police Chief Hanson says he’d like to see more programs like the drug court, such as a so-called “safe jail” concept that would provide treatment for addicts whose crimes are of a more violent nature.
