The country’s first drug treatment court, aimed at providing alternative sentencing and reducing the rate of incarceration for non-violent drug offenders, is expected to be established before the end of the year.
This was disclosed yesterday morning at the opening ceremony of a Drug Treatment Court Training workshop, which was held in the Savannah Suites of the Pegasus Hotel.
The workshop, which was coordinated by the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (NANA), under the Ministry of Public Security, in collaboration with the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), an agency of the Organisation of American States (OAS), and the Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), was attended by various stakeholders, including law enforcement officials and members of the judiciary.
The drug treatment court is expected to be established within the next three months, with the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts serving as the pilot institution.
Its goal is to promote public safety and the wellbeing of the society, provide treatment and support for eligible substance abusers or drugs dependent offenders and provide alternatives to incarceration.
Delivering the opening remarks, Major General (Ret’d) Michael Atherly, Director of NANA, said the workshop signals another important phase in cooperation and collaboration between OAS/CICAD and Guyana, which is intended to support the implementation of alternative incarceration, with adjustments made as part of Guyana’s National Drug Strategy Master Plan.
The drug treatment court, Atherly said, is being established out of the need to solve the frequent and persistent problem that drug related cases create for court systems and the society as a whole.
He noted that the existing situation in the prison system has made the court quite attractive to Guyana.
“It deals specifically with offenders who have committed offences under the influence of drugs. It offers a substitute to going to jail and, in our particular case, a serious overcrowding in jail,” he said.
Once established, Atherly said, the court will also be seen as a place where treatment and rehabilitation can be prescribed, with or without sentencing. “The judge will count on the assistance of all team members in the decision making process. Most participating agencies in the drug treatment court will have their …roles adjusted as well. The role of the police, for example, is likely to change from one whose only interest is in prosecuting an offender to the full extent of the law to one that takes on the added dimension of assisting an offender embark on a life changing experience,” Atherly explained.
He stated that this will also involve a change in the mindset of the police and the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), which will enable them to recognise the long term benefits of recommending an offender to participate in the drug treatment court programme.
Also addressing the gathering was Chief Justice Roxane George, who described the reasons for a drug treatment court in Guyana as “multi-dimensional.”
“The anecdotal and empirical evidence strongly indicates that there has been and is a growing number of persons who interface with the criminal justice system in Guyana, who are substance abusers,” she said.
She noted that the incarceration is not the most beneficial for many who would have committed non-violent offences and the drug treatment courts provide a holistic response to the needs of offenders who are abusers in particular.
“Drug treatment courts are, therefore, problem solving courts and are part of concerted efforts in judicial systems to see substance abusers who have contact with the law and, therefore, contact with the court as persons who are in need of a more caring and supportive environment and court experience,” she said. “It will be an adult treatment court… the defendant must have pleaded guilty or have been guilty of an approved offence [and] will only be eligible to participate in the treatment programme which the court will facilitate as an alternative of incarceration.”
The approved offences, she said, are still being finalised but the focus will be on non-violent, summary and minor offences.
“The drug treatment court is, therefore, another in this new frontier of courts that will focus on the individual to ensure that not only justice is served but that they receive the support that is necessary to help them become or resume being productive law abiding persons in our society,” she said.
The drug treatment court will be made up of a team of persons who are eligible to support the offenders in his or her rehabilitation.
The team will consists of a magistrate, state counsel from the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), a police prosecutor, a police officer, social services or probation officers, defence counsel, a substance abuse treatment provider and any other person/s the team may require.
In March, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had announced that government will be moving ahead with plans to establish drug treatment courts across Guyana.
The initiative to establish drug treatment courts comes out of a commitment made by the Executive Secretariat of the CICAD and the Secretariat for Multidimensional Security of the OAS.
It is also part of Guyana’s National Drug Master Plan for 2016-2020, which includes a policy to reduce the use of incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.
