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Drug treatment court in three months ─ training starts for partners and personnel
In approximately three months, Guyana’s first-ever Drug Treatment Court will be fully operational.
Partners and personnel of the Drug Treatment Court at today’s opening of a one-week training programme
Acting Chief Justice, Madame Roxane George addresses personnel and partners at the ‘Drug Treatment Court Training’ session
Yesterday, a Drug Treatment Court Training began for partners and persons who will be working in the new system.
The drug treatment court model was established out of the need to solve the frequent and persistent problems that drug-related cases create for court systems, the jails and society as a whole.
This was explained by the Director of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (NANA), Retired Major General, Michael Atherly.
“This workshop signals another important phase in cooperation and collaboration between the Organization of American States (OAS) – Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) and Guyana, intended to support the Implementation of Alternatives to Incarceration, a programme derived from CICAD’s Hemispheric Drug Strategy, and with adjustments made by our own National Drug Strategy Master Plan (NDSMP),” Major General Atherly stated.
Also addressing the opening of the training, Madame Roxane George, Chief Justice (ag), similarly stated that the treatment of drug users is preferable to incarceration. The reason for a drug treatment court is multi-dimensional, she added.
“The antipodal and empirical evidence strongly indicates that there has been a growing number of persons who interface with the criminal justice system in Guyana and who are substance abusers,” noted the acting Chief Justice.
She said many offenders had committed nonviolent offences for which the response of incarceration was not the most beneficial.
“International and regional experience has demonstrated that treatment of substance abusers is a better response than imprisonment,” she charged.
The National Drug Strategy Master Plan calls for all participating agencies and bodies to implement measures and programmes. These are aimed at offering treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery support services to drug-dependent offenders, as an alternative to criminal prosecution or imprisonment.
The acting Chief Justice said a team will support the individual during his or her rehabilitation. The team, she said, will comprise the magistrate, a state counsel from the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), and or the Police Prosecutor, a police officer, a social services or probation officer, defense counsel, substance abuse treatment provider and any other person the team may require.
All of them would be working together to ensure that the offender stays the course of the contract. He or she must voluntarily agree to, in order to successfully graduate from the treatment programme.”
CARICOM countries who already have Drug Treatment Courts include; Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas.
The latest to join this list are Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana.
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