Subj: Drug offenders to be dealt with at special court

Date: Mar 19, 1998

Source: The Independent

Drug offenders to be dealt with at special court

By Esther Leach

Magistrates are soon to begin training for an
experimental court dedicated to dealing with drug
offenders.

They will spend two days looking in depth and
discussing with experts the impact of hard drugs
on society and the lives of people who take them
and deal in them.

The JPs, all very experienced, will sit at
Wakefield and Pontefract magistrates' courts in
West Yorkshire, where they will decide if
offenders go on rehabilitation programmes or are
sentenced in another way.

Constance Gilbey, 68, chair- woman of
Wakefield magistrates, who is one of a pool of 24
volunteer JPs, said the court should not be seen
as an easy option for offenders.

"Those who go on the treatment programme will
follow a very strict regime which will restrict their
freedom," said Miss Gilbey. "The idea is to help
offenders to break the drugs habit and give them
new lives ... what's useful to the offender will be
useful to society."

Miss Gilbey, a JP for 38 years, said magistrates
will have to be convinced that the offenders who
come to their court are committed to the
treatment programme before they are allowed on
to it.

The court, which begins work in June, is part of
"Step" - substance misuse and enforcement
programme - initiated by Wakefield Health
Authority, drugs agencies in the area and the UK
anti-drugs co-ordinator, Keith Hellawell, when he
was chief constable of West Yorkshire, after they
saw a similar scheme operating in Miami.

Police will refer offenders arrested for
drug-related crimes to a Step worker who will
assess them in the cells before they are bailed or
remanded to the next available drugs court, which
will be held weekly in Wakefield and eventually
Pontefract.

Their treatment taken while on probation will
involve detoxification, using drug substitutes, and
therapy to change attitudes and behaviour.
Regular urine tests will be made to check that no
drugs are being taken.