send them to drug court!

The limited number of referrals to the Drug Treatment Court (DTC) is of concern to Magistrate Graveney Bannister.

In 2014, Barbados formally inaugurated the country’s first pilot DTC as an alternative to incarceration for drug dependent offenders.

“I have not been seeing enough referrals to the drug court. But when I pick up the paper I see on a daily basis that people are remanded and complaining that they have a drug problem and they need help and needed that help for years,” he pointed out.

“…The legislation is for using incarceration as a last resort. There is a mindset out there that you have to be tough, among some members of the judiciary, that you must be tough on people who are using drugs rather than giving them a second chance. And that is the purpose of drug court, to give people a second chance. And in so doing, we can see coming out of that the possibility of success and reform, rehabilitation and reintegration of persons back into society.”

The head of the DTC was at the time speaking at a Town Hall meeting on “The Role of Drugs Treatment Court, Mental Health & Drugs and Sports & Drugs” at St Alban’s Anglican Church, Lower Carlton, St James, on Saturday night.

He reported that the Drug Treatment Court has seen a reduction in people reoffending.

“It might be still early, but so far the people who have graduated have not reoffended. They are living productive lives; they are not committing crime and that it is success. So there is no burden on taxpayers’ dollars to house them in Dodds.”

Moreover, Magistrate Bannister shared that there are individuals in DTC who are afraid of letting their employers know that they are enrolled in the programme.

“There are fears of what might happen if their employer should find out,” he told the gathering.

“I believe there is a need for education where people would be able to see that individual as a productive individual, coming back into society, coming back into the workplace as an individual who can contribute - rather than trying to dismiss that person or the person has to hide from the employer.”

The Drug Treatment Court had a total of 12 clients in its second cohort and sessions for the third cohort will commence on February 23. (TL)