Public Safety committee  Just to be clear, drug treatment court is not a conditional sentence. The participants are not under sentence when they come into the program. I would point out that we do have quite a number of participants in our program who are also mentally ill and who are not faced solely

Public Safety committee  In practice it is very similar to a conditional sentence. In many ways, I believe it's better than a conditional sentence, because we have such consistent monitoring of the participant who's in the program. The resolution, if there's some sort of breach, is not simply that they'r

Public Safety committee  We work with what is available in the community, but we have also managed to arrange some special partnerships, with the Homelessness Partnering Secretariat, for example, and we've partnered with the John Howard Society and the Elizabeth Fry Society to manage supervised transitio

Public Safety committee  Housing is very important. As Dr. Ward mentioned, there are housing programs available, and it was an understatement when she said there weren't enough of them. There are, by far, not enough of them. It's very difficult for somebody to remain clean or maintain their mental health

Public Safety committee  I'm sorry, I can't cite the specific authors, but there is a body of literature referring to corrections, to the fact that the more frequently people come in contact with the criminal justice system, they become, in effect, criminalized. If people are coming in contact with the s

Public Safety committee  I would like to say that in order to ultimately complete the drug treatment court at the highest level, abstinence is required. However, along the way we work with people where they're starting from. It's important to understand—and it seems odd to people at first—that participa

Public Safety committee  Thank you. No, we see significant improvement with people participating in methadone maintenance programs. It is medically monitored. It's prescribed in a setting where they come into daily contact with service providers. It does not result in the same type of high, if you will

Public Safety committee  The other thing is that we have formed an association of courts across Canada. We have incorporated, and we have elected Mr. Doug Brady as our spokesperson for it. That's our other way of getting the message out.

Public Safety committee  Twice per week. They attend our treatment centre daily and they attend court twice per week.

Public Safety committee  Can I add just one thing finally in response to your question?

Public Safety committee  The people who come into drug treatment courts typically are some of the most disadvantaged people in society. They're very often homeless when they come in. They have very high needs, and because of their history, they have quite a high risk of reoffending. One of the difficul

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  My understanding of Portage--and we have had clients attend there previously--is that they're not a drug treatment court according to the strict model; they are a treatment centre that accepts people who are in conflict with the law, which is something that is difficult. I can'

Public Safety committee  If I may, your question goes very much straight to the heart of what drug treatment courts are about, in my opinion. First, I should make it clear, just in case it's not, that the drug treatment court is really an alternative to incarceration. While the vast majority of our part

Public Safety committee  Madames et monsieurs, honourable members, I'm very pleased to be able to address this committee on behalf of the Ottawa Drug Treatment Court. My name is James Budd, and I'm a Senior Director with Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services, which provides the treatment to the Ottawa