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THE GLASGOW DRUG COURT IN ACTION: THE FIRST SIX MONTHS
FOOTNOTES
1 Scottish Executive (2000a).
2 Glasgow Sheriff Court (2001)
3 It is unlikely that deferred sentences will be used as a vehicle for requiring the offender to access treatment but, as will be shown, they are considered by Drug Court Sheriffs to be useful in the event of multiple charges or new or outstanding charges being brought before the court.
4 The dedicated Drug Court treatment providers and medical officers are from the Glasgow Drug Problem Service (GDPS).
5 The Drug Court Treatment and Supervision Team were built upon the existing DTTO team in Glasgow City Council Social Work Department and are currently based at John Street, Glasgow approximately fifteen minutes by foot from the court.
6 Offenders aged 16-20 years of age may also be referred to the Drug Court under exceptional circumstances.
7 Consideration will be given during the pilot phase to the feasibility of transferring some female offenders from the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court to the Sheriff Court to enable them to have access to the Drug Court.
8 The term 'refer' is used here because it is the term used by police, although what they do is described elsewhere in this report as 'flag' cases (for possible referral).
9 A meeting between the researchers and the social work department to discuss the setting up of an electronic database has been convened for early June. It appears that the researchers will be able to translate their SPSS files into Excel files. This should reduce the amount of time that setting up the database electronically will require.
10 The social worker will undertake a check to establish whether the offender has had previous contact with the social work department, particularly in connection with offending and/or drug use, and will interview the offender.
1 The defence agent will interview the offender to receive instructions on the plea and explain the nature, operation and expectations of the Drug Court.
12 By this we mean reporting and duty officers.
13 Subsequent to interviews being carried out further steps had been taken to improve police awareness of the Drug Court. These included the production and display of a laminated wall chart and a flowchart outlining the target group, referral criteria and procedures and a presentation on the Drug Court by a senior officer to all shifts in each police office in Glasgow.
14 A system has subsequently been put in place to improve the flow of information.
15 Two reasons were given in one case which explains why the column total is 17.
16 Deferred sentences were not intended to provide a vehicle for requiring the offender to access treatment, but were considered to be useful in the event of new or outstanding charges being brought before the court.
17 This latter figure was, however, based on only six cases.
18 P<0.05.
19 This information was not available in 32 per cent of cases.
20 These figures apply to the 30 Drug Court Orders which were imposed by April 2002. While a further Order was imposed early in May, details of this Treatment Plan were not available at the time of the data collection.
21 It is important to note that all of the Drug Court clients were taking prescribed methadone and a small number were prescribed benzodiazepines as part of a short withdrawal programme
22 The data monitoring forms specify 'other illicit opiates'.
23 To minimise the demands made on the Supervision and Treatment Team written reports were required only for DTTO reviews.
24 This refers to the threat of catastrophe (in this case imprisonment) should things go wrong.
25 The Progress Report was typically presented in edited form to report on urine test results and self-reported drug use, attendance at appointments with workers, home environment and general 'motivation' towards the Drug Court Order.
26 Further offending does not constitute a breach of a DTTO, though one of the Drug Court Sheriffs believed that it should.
27 For example The Herald Tuesday May 14, 2002 pages 6, 15.
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