A pilot scheme to steer young offenders away from drug use could become the model for protecting communities from drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour, a report to be published today finds. Government funding, however, is "urgently" needed to ensure its expansion and survival.
The report, Changing Track, is an evaluation of a pilot "arrest referral" scheme in Dublin's north inner-city since 2002. The report will be introduced by Minister of State Noel Ahern this morning.
In his foreword to the report Mr Ahern praises the scheme, saying it "can become a transferable model of best practice in early intervention".
Mr Ahern, who is also the minister in charge of the National Drugs Strategy, says the scheme is "being increasingly utilised in the north inner-city" and "can be reviewed and enhanced".
The National Drugs Strategy commits the Government to monitor youth diversion programmes and "expand them, as appropriate".
This juvenile arrest referral scheme is modelled on one in use by all police forces in England and Wales as part of Britain's Drug Intervention Programme.
A voluntary scheme, it aims to encourage young drug-using offenders into treatment. The young person is offered referral, assessment and treatment on their arrest. The scheme represents the first instance of formal co-operation between the health services and the Garda on drug-related crime.
The co-ordinator of the North Inner City Drugs Task Force, Mel Mac Giobúin, said the scheme was tracking young offenders involved in drug use into "services aimed at helping them address their drug use and related offending behaviour.
"Though initially there has been a low take-up of the scheme, the research shows that this is comparable with findings in the set-up of this type of scheme in the UK."
The recent trend was that it was being used more and more, he said. Increased resources were "urgently required", however, to extend the project. "Without additional resources, the potential of the pilot to achieve any significant success is severely limited. In particular, youth-referral workers should be appointed to support the pilot scheme."
The north inner-city has, the report says, an "acute problem of drug use" with "the proportion of drug users from the north inner-city much higher than would be expected from its population size". Unemployment in the area is 2.5 times the Dublin average.
While acknowledging the low take-up, the experience mirrors that in Britain and Northern Ireland where, for example in Derry, the first year of the scheme - 2001 - was "difficult" with just 85 juveniles referred. In the second year, however, 214 were referred and in 2003, 249 were referred.
As well as calling for increased funding, the report recommends that the profile of the scheme be increased and that its management committee be extended to include representatives from treatment agencies, probation and welfare services and community projects.
