In this blog, Sheriff Iain Fleming gives an overview of the Glasgow Alcohol Problem Solving Court, which aims to assist those who have regularly offended while under the influence of alcohol, to control their alcohol consumption such that they no longer offend.
The Glasgow alcohol court began life in February 2018, initially as a pilot court but now very much part of the Glasgow Sheriff Court landscape. Sitting almost every Monday the court’s aim is the provision of education and counselling, together with punishment, to offenders for whom alcohol is contributing significantly to their offending behaviour. The ultimate goal is to assist them to control their alcohol consumption such that they no longer offend. On most Monday afternoons approximately 20 people will be appearing before one of the problem solving alcohol court sheriffs.
We work upon the basis that if a person is sentenced to a period of imprisonment for alcohol inspired offending, the likelihood is that at the end of that sentence the individual will still have the very problem that caused the offending in the first place. On occasions a custodial sentence is deserved, necessary and well merited. We do however need to recognise that by sending an offender to prison all we are doing in certain cases is accommodating people, sobering them up, and providing temporary protection for society.
As an alternative, and with a view to addressing the root cause of the offending rather than simply the offending itself, the problem solving alcohol court in Glasgow was introduced.
Problem solving courts began life in Miami Dade in Florida in 1989 and perhaps came to most prominence under the direction of an eminent judge named Alex Calabrese who pioneered a court in Red Hook in New York. The outcome of that court was to transform a very depressed and worn down locality, so riven with crime that people would actively avoid it, to a prosperous area with its own subway stop.
The underlying approach of the functioning court today is underpinned by a recognition that frequently the offending behaviour is a symptom of an underlying acute alcohol problem. There are often many more symptoms which can include health and social problems together with housing and financial issues. Rather than punish the symptom, the court will seek to encourage the offender to address the problem itself.
A problem solving court is different from a conventional court. Our court is specifically directed towards those for whom alcohol is playing a significant part in their offending. We focus on the problem not the offending. We call it therapeutic jurisprudence. We refer those who appear in the court to a wide range of service providers who, hopefully, can find out about the reason why an individual is abusing alcohol and perhaps address that. There is a recognition that no-one sets out to have an alcohol problem in their formative years. That problem may have been caused by life events over which the offender had no control. Many may be seeking to escape from trauma by abuse of alcohol.
We are in constant dialogue with service providers and others with a knowledge of alcohol related problems. They tell us of the nature and extent of the alcohol problems which beset some of the city’s residents and advise us of the particular services which may be on offer at any given time.
How do we engage? There is a recognition that everyone has a story or a narrative; we want them to tell it…. if not to the sheriffs then to the service providers. We hold people accountable by bringing them back to court every four to six weeks to monitor progress with desistance from crime and with engagement with rehabilitation services. We challenge them to improve and compliment them on progress. We do so publically and in the full view of the other persons who are present within the court. This can include representatives from the social work department, addiction services, alcoholics anonymous and other third sector organisations who are committed to improving the lives of those who suffer from a difficulty with alcohol.
Taking that into account we rigorously apply the principles of procedural justice; broadly speaking these are;
- We treat everyone with dignity and respect
- We give the person concerned a chance to be heard and tell their side of the story
- We are at pains to be neutral and demonstrably so
- We explain what is happening and explain legal terms to accused
- We add to that one other aspect. The voice of the family and the loved ones should be heard. We want the partner of an offender to come to court and tell us publically what the offender is like while intoxicated. We want an offender to know how it feels to live with them when they are intoxicated.
As the court approaches its seventh year of existence, its durability is demonstrative of its success and more importantly we have improved the lives of many offenders, their families and their communities throughout this period. We would have been unable to do so without the support of our sheriffs principal and the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership whose unfailing support is gratefully acknowledged.
SHAAP Blogposts are published with the permission of the authors. The views expressed are solely the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP).