The work of courts specialized in crimes involving the abuse of illegal drugs

Problem ovisnosti o drogama globalni je socijalni, ali i zdravstveni problem suvremenog svijeta. MeĎu najteţe posljedice zlouporabe ilegalnih droga za društvo, uz ekonomske štete i zdravstvene probleme, ubraja se kriminal i kriminalno ponašanje koje se vezuje uz ilegalne droge. Svrha ovog rada je upoznavanje sa sudovima koji uzimaju u obzir vezu izmeĎu činjenja kaznenih djela i ovisnosti o alkoholu i ilegalnim drogama. U SAD-u institucija Drug Court (Sud specijaliziran za kaznena djela koja uključuju zlouporabu ilegalnih droga) povezuje pravosudni sustav i program rehabilitacije s ciljem smanjenja ovisnosti i recidivizma. U radu je iznesena kratka povijest nastanka i razvoja sudova za droge u SAD-u, od povoda za stvaranje prvog suda 1989. godine do sadašnje brojke od preko 3000 sudova. U fazi formiranja sudova za droge, Ministarstvo pravosuĎa-ured za sudove za droge, razvilo je deset ključnih komponenti koje pruţaju pregled filozofije rada i zahtjeva sudova za droge, objedinivši ih u dokumentu „10 key components“. U tom je dokumentu detaljno obraĎen proces odabira kandidata za pristupanje sudu, rad tretmanskog i pravosudnog osoblja kao i njihova suradnja, uloga zajednice, metode kontrole optuţenika, ali i kontrole rada suda. Uz svaku komponentu pojašnjena je svrha i mjerilo uspješnosti koje ovaj rad prenosi. S obzirom da je svrha ovog rada dati osvrt na potrebu za implementacijom ovih sudova u hrvatski pravosudni sustav, izneseni su rezultati istraţivanja i epidemiološki podatci o stanju u Republici Hrvatskoj. Dan je pregled broja ovisnika, broja počinjenih kaznenih djela vezanih uz zlouporabu ilegalnih droga te broja ovisnika meĎu zatvorenicima. Autorica smatra kako bi sudovi za droge u Republici Hrvatskoj sucima omogućili specijalizaciju za odreĎeno područje i olakšali praćenje slučajeva. Mogli bi biti regionalno organizirani te se baviti onim problemima koji su u toj regiji najzastupljeniji. Autorica smatra kako bi njihov rad bio vrlo koristan s obzirom da bi pruţili mogućnost boljeg rješavanja kompleksnim problema vezanih uz ovisnost i recidivizam. U nastavku rada preneseni su zaključci autora nekoliko studija uspješnosti rada sudova za droge u SAD-u. Uglavnom se slaţu kako je pristupanje sudu za droge za počinitelja i za zajednicu bolje od izdrţavanja kazne zatvora. Ističu kako je teško provesti longitudinalno istraţivanje uspješnosti na razini SAD-a zbog mnogobrojnosti ovih sudova, ali i meĎusobnim razlikama u tretmanskim mogućnostima i podršci zajednice. Moguća uloga socijalnih pedagoga u radu suda bila bi u procesu tretmana, ali i stvaranju spone izmeĎu suda i ustanova koje pruţaju tretman. Zbog specifičnih kompetencija mogu djelovati kao medijatori, edukatori, evaluatori i supervizori u svim procesima vezanim uz šire područje djelovanja suda.The work of courts specialized in crimes involving the abuse of illegal drugs Student: Lea Ujčić Mentor: Ljiljana Mikšaj-Todorović, PhD Program/module: Social Pedagogy/Adults Drug addiction is a global social and health issue of the modern world. Crime and criminal behaviour connected with illegal drugs, alongside economic damages and health issues, are some of the most severe consequences for society. The purpose of this paper is to provide information about courts which take in account the connection between felonies and use of illegal drugs. In the USA there is an institution called the Drug Court which connects the judicial system with rehabilitation programs and its purpose is to lower addiction and recidivism rates. This paper brings a short history of creation and development of Drug Courts in the US, from the causes that led to founding of the first drug court in 1989. to over 3000 existing courts today. In the process of creating Drug Courts, the Ministry of Justice – Drug Court office developed a document named “10 key components” giving an overview of the purpose and demands of the courts. This document defines the process of admission for the offenders, the role of judicial and treatment staff as well as their collaboration, the role of the community, means of supervision for the offenders, but also for the Drug Courts. Every key component comes with the explanation of its purpose and performance benchmarks which have been accounted for in this paper. Given that the purpose is to give an overview of the need for implementing these courts in Croatian justice system, this paper brings results of research and epidemiological data about the conditions in the Republic of Croatia. The data includes number of addicts, number of felonies connected with the use of illegal drugs and number of prisoners that are addicts. The author thinks that Drug Courts could facilitate monitoring of cases and give a chance to Croatian judges to specialize in certain fields. They could be regionally organized and deal with the issues most important to the local community. The author thinks their work would be very useful due to the fact they would give a chance to deal better with addiction and recidivism. The next part brings the conclusions reached by the authors of various Drug Court evaluation studies in the USA. They mostly agree that admission to Drug Court is better than jail sentence for the offender but also for the community. They underline the fact that it is difficult to conduct long term evaluation study for the whole USA because of the large number of these courts, but also because of the differences in treatment providing possibilities and community support. The potential role of social pedagogists in Drug Courts is in the process of treatment but also in creating a bridge between the courts and the institutions providing treatment. Giving their specific skills they can act as mediators, educators, evaluators and supervisors in all the processes connected with the wide area of court operations