| Last updated at 8:34 AM on 21/09/08 |
Justice goes holistic 
PAM FRAMPTON 
The Telegram
To those of us lucky enough to be on the outside looking in, the wheels of justice turn painfully slowly and one of them is wonky.
Those within and at the mercy of the system understand more about court process and procedure, but even they would likely admit cold molasses has more momentum.
In St. John's recently, a man charged with uttering threats had his hopes of having the matter expedited dashed during his second court appearance, when he was told the next half-day trial space available was sometime in February.
And then there's the case of Rayna Dove.
She's the 28-year-old charged with robbing a St. John's gas station in July while wielding a knife.
Police say she cut the clerk's arm before running away, and that she attacked the arresting officer and a correctional officer at the lockup.
She's charged with two counts of assaulting a peace officer, robbery with violence and assault causing bodily harm.
She's also accused of breaching probation, because this was not her first run-in with the law.
Her criminal record includes multiple thefts, possessing stolen property and breaches of conditions.
While in custody on the current charges, she spent two days on suicide watch.
The Telegram reported on her case in July. Her boyfriend, Jason Wells, said he hopes that if she's found guilty, she'll be sentenced to a federal prison where she can have access to the supports she needs to get her life back on track.
"I love this girl. I'd marry her. She's an outstanding person," Wells told Telegram reporter Tara Mullowney. "But she's got to change her life around."
Wells says Dove has bipolar disorder and is hooked on morphine, OxyContin and cocaine, and is involved in custody struggles over her two young children.
So far, she's been in court five times since July 28 and a plea still hasn't been entered in the case. She's due back again Sept. 23.
Revolving door
To casual court observers, Dove's case is just one of many where the same faces and names keep cropping up. There are so many crimes these days - car theft, armed robbery, shoplifting, break-and-enters - that unless you're directly involved or affected, they all start to blur together.
Few people would dispute the fact that many of these incidents are fuelled by other troubles: addiction, mental-health issues, poverty, lack of family supports.
But instead of treating the root of the problem, we're channeling people through the maze of justice, sapping valuable court time and resources with cases that perhaps could be prevented with a different approach.
In Vancouver, they recently took aim at this very same problem.
On Sept. 10, Canada's first community court heard its first case, with provincial court Judge Thomas Gove presiding.
The idea behind community court - and there are similar courts in other parts of the world, including the U.K., the U.S. and Australia - is to take a triage approach to justice, just as doctors do with medicine in hospital emergency rooms.
Four years ago, the B.C. Justice Review Task Force set up a working group on street crime to study the problems in Vancouver, and found it to have the second-highest crime rate (behind Winnipeg) among major Canadian cities.
Many of the crimes are property offences and many of those committing them are repeat offenders, often addicts or people with mental-health problems that have not been addressed.
As the working group - which included representatives from social services, the police, the government, corrections, lawyers and judges - noted in its report, "Beyond the Revolving Door: A New Response to Chronic Offenders," "One drug-addicted offender claimed to break into 20 cars a day to support her habit. The average cost is $640 per insurance claim."
They also noted that there was a disconnect between aspects of the health and justice systems, that there were no court options specifically for chronic offenders committing minor offences and that the public perception was that little was being done to address the problem.
One-stop shopping
Four years later, the new community court features "Health, income assistance and housing staff, as well as victim services and native court workers ... located together in the new community courthouse, along with Crown counsel, defence counsel, a police officer and probation officers. Integrated teams representing all of these agencies work together to identify offenders' needs and circumstances and to develop effective offender management plans."
The idea is to offer the accused a sort of one-stop shopping - a court where they can be mentally and physically assessed, be given access to resources they need and have their cases fast-tracked.
The results should mean more efficient use of court time, fewer people sent to jail and decreased crime.
The first case heard, according to a CBC Radio report, involved a man charged with shoplifting who was drunk at the time. Housing and addiction counselling was arranged for him and if he complies with community court instructions, the criminal charges will be dropped.
In some cases, convictions will result in community service, which allows the public to play a role in administering justice.
It's a bold experiment worth watching and considering here, in a province where looming prosperity promises to bring with it more drugs and more crime.
Unfortunately, it's not an experiment our provincial government appears interested in.
Contacted for comment, the Department of Justice e-mailed this statement: "At the present time the Department of Justice is not examining the possibility of a Downtown Community Court for Newfoundland and Labrador. The department is moving forward with therapeutic courts such as the Mental Health Court, an Innu Healing Court pilot program in Sheshatshiu and a Specialized Family Violence Treatment Court pilot project for St. John's. We believe that these courts are an appropriate response to many of the issues facing our province."
In B.C., the working group's task force report contained this warning: "Governments should consider the costs of failing to address street crime, and the public's capacity to tolerate further deterioration of their quality of life."
Surely that's advice worth heeding.
Pam Frampton is The Telegram's story editor. She can be reached by e-mail at pframpton@thetelegram.com. Her column will now appear in the A-section of The Weekend Telegram.
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