Taiwan’s justice system could use intervention and treatment programs to rehabilitate and reintegrate drug offenders into society instead of incarcerating them, judicial officials and legal professionals said at an international conference in Taipei on Wednesday to discuss the nation’s anti-drug policy.
Christine Carpenter, a recently retired US drug court judge who served 18 years on 13th Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri, gave one of the main presentations at the Best Practices of Drug Courts and Multiple Intervention Programs Conference, which was organized the CTBC Anti-Drug Educational Foundation (中信反毒基金會).
The conference speakers were in Taiwan to share their experience in the US of dealing with drug offenders, using a community-based approach with the involvement of social service and health agencies in intervention and treatment programs, and to see if there are cultural differences that require changes and modifications for Taiwan’s justice system, Carpenter said in an interview yesterday.
Photo provided by the CTBC Anti-Drug Educational Foundation
Carpenter presented a speech titled “Practice of Drug Courts in the US, the Missouri State Model” at the conference, which was organized by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the US National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Carpenter serves as the association’s senior adviser for international affairs.
She attended a similar event in Taiwan last year, at which experts from the US, Japan and Germany took part in an international exchange on the best practices of their countries’ drug court systems, and looked at alternative ways of dealing with substance abuse and drug addicts.
Supported by US federal and state funding, the US drug court system handles convicted substance abusers and drug offenders not by putting them into prison, but by focusing on rehabilitation through treatment and education to help them overcome addiction and related criminal problems, so that they can be reintegrated into society.
“We use assessment and screening tools to select people for getting treatment, but there are ‘high-risk’ and ‘high-need’ drug offenders who have associated criminal and mental issues — those are difficult cases to handle, because public safety is at stake,” Carpenter said.
First-time offenders and those deemed low-risk would be selected for treatment, rather than be sent to prison, she said.
Carpenter said that an example would be a college student caught growing marijuana in their dorm room, “but they have never been in trouble before, as they are not drug addicts, and they want to come to the treatment program because they don’t want to have a conviction record.”
In her job, people share their life stories, stories about their families, their personal situations and their travails, Carpenter said.
“Being a drug court judge is a very, very hard job, but it is also one of the best jobs, because you really can make changes, instead of just sending people to prison,” she said.
Carpenter said that she met and discussed issues with the minister of justice, the minister of health and welfare, and chief prosecutors, as well as CTBC Anti-Drug Educational Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) and Roger Kao (高人傑), head of the Global General Administration Group for CTBC Bank.
They were quite interested in the US experience, she said, adding that the conference aimed to introduce new ideas and reforms for Taiwan’s drug policy, with the possibility of establishing a drug court system in the nation.
Taiwanese judicial officials said that they could learn a lot from the US and other countries regarding best practices of drug court systems, and that assisting drug offenders with integrated treatment programs could be more effective in combating substance abuse, reducing the burden on judicial resources and alleviating the problem of prison overcrowding.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard