Figure 1 Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Treatment courts aim to solve problems for criminal defendants and/or criminal offenders. Traditionally, the court system has focused on issuing penalties for crimes committed, with little else. This approach assumed that once a wrong was penalised, the penalty itself would deter future criminal behaviour.
However, some problem behaviours that lead to criminal activity cannot be so easily deterred. These problems often relate to substance dependency, mental illness, and struggles associated with issues as varied as literacy, gambling, violence, homelessness and poverty.
The treatment courts available in Queensland include Drug Court, Court Link Court, Mental Health Court and, for serious criminal charges, Murri Court. They all operate under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992. The title makes it clear that there is more than a penalty involved in criminal sentencing. The sentencing guidelines in the Act include considering punishment, deterrence, recognition of the harm done, and denunciation of the sort of conduct the offender did/ did not do. It also includes rehabilitation of offender avenues,
There are critics of treatment courts: some opine that treatment courts are extensions of the state system of prisons, disguising punishment as therapy. Their argument relies on seeing the state as being interested in supervising and maintaining control of a person rather than assisting the person. That view also supports the need for a person to be found guilty of criminal conduct before the state gets involved with any treatment. Others simply describe treatment courts as soft justice, using treatment programs by social workers to replace punishment.
Coercion to rehabilitate via bail conditions whilst the criminal trial is pending is also raised as a criticism where the treatment court is bail-based, that is, before the decision is made about the defendant being guilty or not guilty of the crime.
However, these criticisms ignore how the factor of choice actually operates. Participants in treatment courts have a choice about entering a treatment court program. Once accepted to the treatment program, they receive due process and work with multi-disciplinary teams that review their steps towards rehabilitation to being an acceptable citizen. Credit is awarded for good progress. No extra punishment is awarded for failing to progress.
For more than twenty years, treatment courts have quietly transformed how justice is done in Queensland. Reviews and qualitative assessments of these courts have consistently found that when courts combine accountability with treatment, public safety improves, costs decline, and lives are rebuilt.
Treatment courts work within a more supportive and understanding society, able to offer assistance for what is very often “the real” problem in a criminal defendant’s life. This more restorative and therapeutic response is grounded in measurable, human outcomes that positively affect not only the individuals involved but also the whole community by working to return individuals better equipped to manage their issue/s. Of course this means the whole community benefits as its safety and security is enhanced.
Done by Law
