Justice committee  I'd have to know more about the situation than that.

Justice committee  It's important to keep in mind too that people come into the drug treatment court because they are already in the criminal court system. So it's not enough to say that this person who worked for the cabinet would have a drug problem and use public funds and so on. But if he were charged criminally with something arising out of that and then brought before the criminal courts, then we'd have a look at the nature of the charge, the nature of the addiction, whether there were some other reasons for screening the person in or out, and make a decision from there.

Justice committee  I would add that it's very difficult to quantify what the savings are and what the costs are. I think I saw one American study that said that for every dollar you spend on a drug treatment court, you save up to seven dollars. They were taking into consideration things like all of the break-and-enters that this person did not commit that they would otherwise have committed over the rest of their life had they not been through the program and overcome the addiction.

Justice committee  Yes, it is used quite a lot.

Justice committee  That's right. In the drug treatment court they virtually always receive a suspended sentence and a period of probation at the end.

Justice committee  Organized crime would not be eligible.

Justice committee  We don't have to get to that point. In our court and in most of the courts the Crown does the initial wave of screening. We have a six-stage screening process. In the first stage the Crown looks at the application, the synopsis of the offence, the criminal record, and any recommendations from the police.

Justice committee  If you measure it by graduation--and you ought not to--the graduation rate in the evaluation report for the first five years of the Toronto Drug Treatment Court was a little over 15%. I'm told by treatment people that's about the same as or maybe even a little better than the success rate of people in standard, non-coercive, more voluntary cocaine treatment programs.

Justice committee  Those are screened out.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Those are screened out. If it's technically a robbery that really breaks down to more of a theft and a shove, there's a bit of discretion to let something in if the violence component is really innocuous. My colleague with the provincial crown office who screens most of the Criminal Code offences is very careful about that, and is obliged to be very careful.

Justice committee  Something like a home invasion would absolutely not be eligible. Even a residential break-and-enter when there's nobody home would not be eligible. Only vehicular and commercial break-and-enters are eligible.

Justice committee  Yes, but repeat participants in the court are a little less eligible. We established a policy within the court, after discussion with duty counsel, the judiciary, treatment, and so on. Previous graduates from the program are not allowed to participate in the program again. After they complete the program and graduate successfully, they don't get a second shot.

Justice committee  The conditional sentencing system really doesn't interact with the drug treatment court system at all. People who are coming into drug treatment court are typically facing a period of custody. They're often people with very lengthy criminal records for similar offences such as trafficking.

Justice committee  Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. My thanks to the members of the committee for giving us the opportunity to appear here this afternoon to discuss how drug treatment courts operate in Canada. My colleague Mr. Coleman and I will speak from the perspective of the Toronto Drug Treatment Court, but there are substantial similarities between our court and the other courts across the country.