Residential drug treatment programmes can slash crime, a visiting US District Attorney told The Royal Gazette.

Charles Hynes, DA for King's County in Brooklyn, New York, believes long-term drug programmes are a cheap and effective way to solve the increasing problem of drug-related crime.

And magistrates and court workers in Bermuda agree that a long-term residential programme would be a good idea, although the cost and location of the facility could be a problem.

Mr. Hynes contacted Drug Court in Bermuda after reading in The Royal Gazette about a career criminal who was sent to jail after failing to respond to the rehabilitation treatment offered as an alternative to incarceration.

He will now be sending Court Services a raft of information on how residential drug programmes in the US have helped to cut crime rates dramatically.

“In 1990 we had the fifth most violent municipality in the country,” said Mr Hynes, returning to Bermuda where he honeymooned 40 years ago.

“We had 750 murders a year and 170,000 index crimes, which are the seven most serious types of crime like murder, rape, grand theft auto.

“But now there are just 240 murders and under 60,000 serious crimes a year and it's related directly to the reduction of drugs in our community.

“We introduced this Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Programme (DTAP) 13 years ago on the premise that defendants would return to society in a better position to resist drugs and crime after treatment than if they had spent a comparable time in prison at nearly twice the cost.

“It costs around $40,000 a year to keep a man in prison but only $20,000 in one of these residential drug treatment centres.”

As well as drug treatment, the centres also provide career advice to help integrate the graduates of the programme back into society.

“DTAP is the first prosecution-run programme in the country to divert prison-bound felony offenders to residential drug treatment,” Mr. Hynes continued.

“The programme targets drug-addicted defendants arrested for non-violent felony offences who have previously been convicted of one or more non-violent felonies.

“Qualified defendants enter a guilty plea and receive a deferred sentence that allows them to participate in a residential therapeutic community drug treatment programme for a period of 15 to 24 months. Those who successfully complete the programme have their charges dismissed; those who fail are brought back to court by a special warrant enforcement team and sentenced to prison.”

Since the programme's inception, 1,865 defendants have been accepted into the programme, 393 are still in treatment and 699 have completed the programme and have had their charges dismissed.

When told about the scheme, Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves, who oversees Drug Court, said: “I think it is an excellent idea and I would dearly love to speak to this man.

“It could be of enormous benefit and it's something we have tried to look at. Particularly for those who are addicted to a drug like heroin, which is very hard to shake off, a long-term programme would be a beautiful way of dealing with it.”

In Bermuda, as part of the Alternative to Incarceration programme, offenders can be placed in a treatment programme through Drug Court in lieu of a jail sentence.

The programme includes regular drug tests, mandatory counselling sessions and appearances at Drug Court.

Bermuda's residential equivalent is Camp Spirit, a residential treatment programme housed on Darrell's Island, which offers addicts a 90-day complete break from the temptations of the mainland.

Up to 14 residents at a time can be housed at the facility which has five counsellors to help integrate addicts back into the community.

The Harbour Lights Centre also provides a 90-day residential treatment programme.

Drug Court Coordinator Calvin Ming also believes a long-term programme would be an effective way of dealing with offenders as an alternative to incarceration - but believes it would be difficult to implement here.

“Bermuda really needs to look closely at this sort of treatment programme,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“We have to look at ways of expanding the Alternative to Incarceration programme and this would be one way.

It would be particularly effective for those suffering from dual disorders and those with mental health and substance abuse problems.

“The cost of the facility would be a problem as would the location. On an island like Bermuda it's a case of not-in-my-backyard.

“But these are problems that are not insurmountable and, yes, in certain cases, it's something that would be desirable.”