Life In Juvenile Detention

That's what the B.C. government health minister was telling reporters on Friday.George Abbott was speaking of his governments reopening of the antiquated Willingdon Youth Detention Center in Burnaby. The building and grounds are to be used to house the victims of the "new" drug court that's being set up in Burnaby and scheduled to open this summer. The court will "offer a 'choice'" to anyone appearing before it,between jail and treatment.If there was treatment that had a statistical chance in hell of helping even a significant number of these chronic offenders(read drug addicts)there'd be nothing to talk about.Abbott is contending that the facility will be used solely for the housing of people with dual diagnosis,meaning drug and mental problems.I don't trust Mr.Abbott or his government.Retrofitting an old prison with 100 beds and suggesting that there's a very real possibility that some will be there for life is unconscionable but not a stretch for this government.The drug courts were tried in the 70's and so was the idea of locking up addicts for being addicts and keeping them in prison till they were cured or dead. Drug treatment should be available on demand and should be for as long as is necessary to attain it's objectives.Forced treatment is not has not been and never will be successful in treating addictions.This idea has been tried all over the world and has never been successful in a statistically prove-able form anywhere.Every time significant results have been claimed,they've been shown to be either in confined circumstances or just not true.I'm sure it's possible to keep an addict in custody forever and have them remain clean but there's no quality of life in prison.People that want treatment should have a place where they can go and stay for as long as it takes.Opening places like Willingdon and pretending we're doing these people a service is worse than doing nothing.It takes money away from projects and policies that might just have a chance of really working.We will never jail our way out of the drug problem.Things like this only fool the public into thinking something constructive is being done which couldn't be further from the truth.