By Alessia Proietti and Sheldon Spackman

Update since October 2021

Three participants so far at Red Deer’s drug treatment court

May 10, 2022 | 4:32 PM

Red Deer’s drug treatment court has been up and running for a few months now and some may be wondering; how’s it going?

“When we’re able to take those individuals and support them in getting residential treatment, getting a home, getting the treatment that they need to get back on their feet and become productive citizens but also start contributing back to the community through their volunteer work, it’s a win-win for everybody,” said Trish McAllister, Program Manager of the Red Deer Drug Treatment Court Services..

According to McAllister, the diversion program is geared towards individuals in central Alberta involved with the justice system facing one to five years of jail time for low level offences, like minor property charges, relating to drugs and substance abuse disorders.

A partnership between the John Howard Society of Red Deer and the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, these individuals may be given the opportunity to serve their time in the drug court system instead, where they will trade their jail time for residential and community based treatments, volunteer work and therapies.

“It’s not a free ride. It’s not a get out of jail free ticket but rather a diversion away from the jails so that we’re reducing the number of low level offenders in the jails and helping rehabilitate people to be contributing members of the community,” she said.

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“That’s the real goal: reduce recidivism and increase safety in our community.”

Participants are supervised by a multidisciplinary team including those in the treatment services program and the drug court system with a specially trained judge, probation officer and prosecutors.

The court officially opened in October 2021, in a separate office of the John Howard Society in downtown Red Deer. McAllister confirmed the court received their first participant on Jan. 31, 2022, have recently accepted their second, and are in the process of accepting their third.

“It’s been a little bit of a slow uptick but part of that slow uptick is that extensive screening process,” she said.

That process, McAllister describes, begins by looking at an individual’s past charges, eliminating those with a history of violence, weapon use, and offences against others. The application then goes before a Crown prosecutor and reviewed by the individual’s local police for any additional information, potentially not on record. Finally, the drug treatment services program conducts an intensive motivational assessment to see if the applicant is self-motivated to change.

McAllister believes the drug treatment court will do well in Red Deer as she sees successes across the province.

Alberta’s first drug treatment court opened in 2005 in Edmonton with another in Calgary in 2007. The provincial government announced in 2019 an additional $20 million in funding over four years to expand the project, adding a court in Lethbridge in 2020 and Medicine Hat in 2021.

READ: Red Deer’s drug treatment court to open by mid-2022