Drug court in spotlight

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This article was published 20/03/2016 (3495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Liberals are promising to match the federal government’s investment in the Winnipeg Drug Treatment Court if they form government April 19.

Leader Rana Bokhari said a Liberal government will add $400,000 to the court, which acts as an alternative to jail for drug offenders. Currently, the federal government pays for the program in the six provinces that have it.

“Its cost benefit is not only incredible, but it leads to one less person breaking into cars, one less person breaking into houses,” Bokhari said during an announcement Sunday.

“It will help people become productive members of society.”

Bokhari and Radisson Liberal candidate Scott Newman — who has been a spokesman for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba — said sending a person to jail costs taxpayers $70,000 per year while a successful graduate of the court program costs the system about $40,000.

“You save $30,000 for that year alone,” Newman said.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to straighten out their lives and become productive citizens.”

About 30 people are accepted into the program annually — after justice officials review the candidacy of the offenders — and about 10 people graduate after a year of treatment, counselling and education upgrading.

The court has graduated 77 people in its first eight years out of 262 people who enrolled in it. For the people who graduated, only 13 per cent committed a crime again.

“We’re hoping that doubling the dollars will double the effect,” Bokhari said.

She said she doesn’t believe the federal government would reduce its share if the province started putting funding toward the court.

Upon hearing about the Liberals’ pledge, NDP Leader Greg Selinger said his party supports increased investments in the drug treatment court. However, Selinger added a Liberal plan to privatize liquor sales means more people are going to need drug treatment.

“It means there is going to be less money for social responsibility to do prevention,” he said, noting with Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, two per cent of all revenue goes to social-responsibility programs.

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“So, she is going to give away the revenues at the same time she says she is going to do more on this side.”

In his government’s recent fiscal outlook, $30 million was pledged for prevention activities, and some of that fund could be used to increase funds for the drug treatment court, Selinger said.

“We think these sort of ideas are good, but it doesn’t add up when she talking about privatizing Liquor & Lotteries,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bokhari said her party hopes to complete the nomination of its candidates in the next week. About 10 candidates still have to be nominated.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.