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Drug treatment pilot announced
03/01/2008
Details of a pilot of a new model of drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) to be tested in the majority of courts in the Lothians and Borders Community Justice Authority area were announced today.
If the pilot proves successful, the orders could eventually be rolled out across Scotland, offering courts an effective option in dealing with offenders at an earlier stage in their drugs misuse. The two-year pilot is expected to begin in the spring.
DTTOs have to date been primarily used with high-tariff offenders. As part of the pilot, they will be adapted for use with lower tariff offenders.
Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing said:
"Reducing drug-related crime and re-offending is a key aim for the Scottish Government. We want to build on the current success of DTTOs which can help move problematic drug users into appropriate treatment and support services.
"DTTOs have a positive impact on drug use and offending - after six months on an order an addict's expenditure on drugs decreased from an average of £490 per week pre-sentence to an average of £57 per week.
"Despite having extensive prior criminal histories, almost half of those who complete their orders have no further convictions within two years. Even non-completers demonstrated reduced reconviction rates.
"On 19 December I had the chance to meet with some recovering addicts. Many spoke of how DTTOs had helped them become drug free. The current focus of DTTOs is on those offenders who over the years have committed a vast amount of crime to fund their drug addiction. However, building on this success, we believe there is opportunity to extend DTTOs for use with those offenders who are at an earlier stage in their offending career.
"The pilot, which will cover the majority of courts in the Lothians and Borders Community Justice Authority area, will test whether DTTOs can be successfully adapted to work with this different offender group.
"The challenge will be to ensure that the best features of DTTOs are maintained as part of any new model at the same time as extending the order to lower tariff offenders. The pilot will also allow the new justice courts to use this new form of DTTOs as a sentencing option in dealing with those offenders with drugs misuse issues.
"We are committed to ensuring that drugs misusing offenders are provided with every opportunity to access treatment in order to reduce the amount of acquisitive crime being carried out in our communities. It's not simply a case of extending DTTOs in their present form - the cost, complexity of delivering the order and the fact it has been targeted at more serious offenders means that a slightly different approach is needed. However if we are successful in our aim it will mean that this group of offenders will not graduate to more serious offending careers.
"Too many of our young people fall into drug abuse and opt out of life. Extending the family of DTTO options could help us catch more of them before they fall too far."
The Edinburgh DTTO scheme has enjoyed a consistently high level of demand from Edinburgh Sheriff court over the years. In 2005-06, 99 DTTOs were imposed by the court out of a Scottish total of 599 orders that year. Earlier this year the scheme was one of two criminal justice social work projects, which were successful in securing a Butler Trust award, an independent annual award scheme designed "to recognise exceptionally dedicated, and often creative work undertaken by prison staff and volunteers". The award scheme was extended to criminal justice social work staff for the first time this year.
DTTOs are an order of court currently used with high tariff offenders who have a serious drugs misuse problem and who might otherwise be facing a custodial sentence; the underlying philosophy of DTTOs is that by addressing an offender's drugs misuse it is possible to make a positive impact on their related offending behaviour which in most instances will consist of acquisitive crime to fund their addiction; crucially requires the consent of the offender, who will typically have reached a stage in their life after a number of years of serious drugs misuse, whereby they wish to move on from a lifestyle dominated by their reliance on drugs;
Experience suggests that relatively few young people acknowledge the extent of their addiction or wish to move on at that stage in their lives. Young people more commonly are at a stage of experimenting with or still enjoying the drugs experience; DTTOs are highly invasive court disposals, which require considerable levels of compliance on the part of the individual. Non-compliance with the terms of the order is likely to result in imposition of a custodial term.
The average cost of a DTTO is around £10,000, while the average cost of prison is approximately £35,000 per year. A total of 599 DTTOs were imposed in 2005-6 and 1,311 DTTO assessments were carried out, up 14 per cent and 9 per cent respectively on the previous year; The disposal is now available to all Sheriff and High Courts in Scotland, as well as to the Stipendiary Magistrates in Glasgow.