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Drug treatment and testing
02/06/2008
A new model of drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) gets underway today.
The new pilot is being supported by £1 million of Government funding and will be tested in the majority of courts in the Lothians and Borders Sheriffdom over the next two years.
If successful and subject to securing additional funding, the orders will be rolled out across Scotland, offering courts an effective option in dealing with offenders at an earlier stage in their drugs misuse.
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.
Mr Ewing said:
"Drug-related crime has a crippling impact on all walks of life which is why we want to develop the current success of DTTOs and help even more drug users get into appropriate treatment and support services.
"A key strand of our new drugs strategy is recovery. Many of the recovering addicts I've met say that DTTOs have helped them become drug free.
"Although DTTOs currently target offenders who've committed a great deal of crime to fund their addiction, this innovative new pilot will intervene at an earlier stage in their offending career.
"It's important that the best features of DTTOs are maintained as part of any new model. It's not possible to extend 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."
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. It requires the consent of the offender whereby they are determined to move on from a lifestyle dominated by their reliance on drugs.
The DTTO in its current form is a high tariff disposal available to Sheriff and High Courts and the Glasgow Stipendiary Magistrates Court. The specific objectives of a DTTO are to reduce or eliminate an offender's dependency or propensity to misuse drugs and thereby to achieve positive changes in the scale and frequency of drug related offending. The order combines drug treatment and a regular testing regime with 4 weekly reviews by the sentencer. To date the order has been targeted specifically at a narrow band of high tariff offenders with serious drugs misuse issues and a significant offending history. Reconviction data suggests that almost 50 per cent of such individuals are not reconvicted within 2 years.
The approximate annual cost of a DTTO is £10,000, which is higher than other community sentences, but considerably lower than a similar period in custody.
The pilot scheme will cover courts in Edinburgh, Midlothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders.
In addition to testing the model, the pilot will provide a better idea of the extent to which courts are likely to make use of this disposal. An annual figure of £0.5m has been set aside for the pilot. We might expect some 60-70 orders per year for the pilot but this will depend on the attractiveness of the order to the courts.