The ACT Government committed to establishing an ACT Drug and Alcohol Court in the 9th Parliamentary Agreement as part of its goal to reduce recidivism by 25% by 2025.
In June 2019, the ACT Government introduced the Sentencing (Drug and Alcohol Treatment Orders) Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 to establish the Drug and Alcohol Court, also known as the Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List (DASL).
The DASL deals with offences that relate to serious drug and alcohol use. It protects the community and reduces offending by rehabilitating high risk and high need offenders who have serious issues with drug and/or alcohol use.
The aim of the DASL is to achieve long-term behavioural change, taking a problem-solving approach to dealing with a participant’s behaviour and supporting participants to develop a pro-social lifestyle.
The DASL provides targeted and structured health and justice interventions while holding people to account for their behaviour.
Drug and Alcohol Courts have been operating in other Australian states and overseas with clear benefits for participants, their families, and the wider community.
The DASL was developed collaboratively between various Government and non-government agencies. The DASL has been operating since December 2019 and will mark its 4th anniversary in December 2023.
Initially led by Acting Justice Lorraine Walker, the DASL has been led by Acting Justice Refshauge since July 2020 and is supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order Team. The Team includes Government health and justice representatives, as well as prosecution and defence lawyers, and includes police and housing support as required.
The Team is responsible for supporting participants through the program and administering the day-to-day operations. This includes reviewing participant progress during pre-hearing review meetings and contributing observations and recommendations within team members’ respective areas of expertise.
In August 2022, the ACT Government released an independent evaluation by the Australian National University (ANU) on the DASL. Preliminary outcomes of the evaluation found that the DASL supports the reduction of recidivism rates, improves the social and health outcomes for participants, and may have saved the community $14 million in avoided prison time by diverting offenders away from prison. A PDF of the final Process and Outcome Evaluation Report is available here.
In light of the positive findings of the ANU evaluation of the DASL, the ACT Government committed $8.4 million of the 2023-24 Budget to continue and expand the DASL by 20 per cent, from 35 to 42 participants.
A statutory review of the DASL was conducted in 2023 to examine areas of the law that were identified in the ANU evaluation as requiring reform. The statutory review found that the DASL provisions are operating effectively overall. The review also recommends that the ACT Government consider undertaking further work on some issues, including expanding the range of court-based treatment options for people with shorter sentences and allowing referrals to and from the Magistrates Court. The report of the statutory review was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on 31 August 2023. A PDF of the statutory review report is available here.
A Sentencing (Drug and Alcohol Treatment Orders) Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 was also introduced to the Legislative Assembly on 31 August 2023. The Bill implements amendments that address the issues raised in the statutory review and the ANU evaluation. The Bill will expand the eligibility criteria for the DASL, allow the court to backdate treatment orders, and increase the flexibility of the court to deal with breaches of treatment orders.
More information on the Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List is available on the ACT Courts website.
