Plans to set up a US-style drug court in the Dublin District Court in January are due to go to Government next month. The drug court system, which sentences offenders to treatment rather than prison, is strongly endorsed in a report to the Minister for Justice, seen by The Irish Times.
The report by the Working Group on a Courts Commission cites "conclusive" evidence that drug courts elsewhere have resulted in reductions in drug-related crime, the number of babies born drug-addicted and the costs of dealing with offenders.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is believed to be preparing proposals to be put to Government next month based on the recommendations by the group, chaired by Supreme Court judge Mrs Justice Susan Denham.
Among the proposals is the establishment of a pilot project in the Dublin District Court from January, a move expected to cost £250,000.
The report describes the system as radical and a "fundamental alteration in the approach of society and the courts". The authors say it would not require large amounts of legislation as the legal provisions have been on the statute books for 15 years.
Under the 1984 Misuse of Drugs Act, judges can adjourn sentence and order treatment on bail, with medical and vocational reports on an offender's addiction. Offenders can also technically be sentenced to a "custodial treatment centre".
However, the report says while the legal provisions exist, the resources do not. There is no such treatment centre and the current system, whereby some judges request treatment for offenders, "has neither defined objectives, nor adequate support personnel, nor the necessary infrastructure".
The report recommends that the system be used to deal with people who come before judges on non-violent offences, including possession and petty crime.
Drug traffickers or those arrested with large amounts of drugs would be sentenced by the normal courts. The report's recommendations do not change the provision for a 10-year mandatory sentence for those convicted of having £10,000 or more worth of drugs.
The report recommends that judges would volunteer to sit as drug courts judges for part of their working week.
Those sentenced to treatment would be required to give regular urine samples and failure to stay drug-free would mean "short, sharp sanctions", including long or short-term prison terms.
The drug courts could also issue treatment orders, to run alongside community service orders, with the sanction of prison for those who fail to stay drug-free.
The report does not specify the number of treatment places needed to meet demand from such a system. But it says that further units for detoxification, stabilisation and aftercare and "more aftercare units, such as hostels with day activities, such as training and education by committed staff, will be essential".
It says a committee should be established to cost the system across all Departments. "The resource implications cannot be quantified at this time. The requirements for an optimum system could be vast."
The main recommendations are:
A drug courts' planning programme to be set up by a group representing the presidents of the District, Circuit and High Courts, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney General, the Bar, the Law Society, the Prison Service, the health boards and the voluntary agencies.
A drug courts' co-ordinator be appointed as a member of the planned Courts Service Agency.
Training and education for those involved and visits by Irish judges to US drug courts.
The decision to sentence to a treatment programme to be at the discretion of judges, with the DPP having the power to make submissions, but not to veto such a decision.
The integration of drug courts into the existing courts structure, starting at District Court level.
Legislation to be considered to allow courts to make drug treatment orders, similar to community service orders.
