Next month drug court will honour the first attendee to successfully complete the programme after he has stayed out of trouble for more than a year.

Magistrates and prosecutors agree it is not the only success in the programme which began in October last year.

Drug court Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said: “You might want to submit we haven't produced the fruits by graduating a whole bunch of people but we would say we have one real positive regarding all our clients.

“Most clients have been repeat offenders throughout the years but this has been the longest period they have not committed any crime.”

He said one person had been in and out of jail every year since 1980 but since coming to drug court in September had not been connected with any crime. And prosecutor Wayne Caines said it was clear that criminals with a long record were less free to re-offend because they were kept under such tight wraps by the drug court programme.

“Every week they have mandatory urine tests, they have a curfew, they have to report to a case manager, they have Addicts Anonymous meetings five and six times a week. Under that stringent watch they can't commit crime.”

He said he knew of one person who was a prodigious criminal who now was virtually crime free. He said: “There are similar cases the public knows very little about.”

Mr. Greaves said even those who had been terminated from the drug court programme were not committing crimes during their supervision period.

He said: “There is not a large drop out rate - only two people requested release. One was a drug addict of 40 years while another one is an alcoholic of 20 years. “Two women were released because the Fairhavens facilities weren't ready at that stage and one had been released through repeated breaches,” Mr. Greaves said before admitting: “Now there are no women in the programme.”

Mr. Greaves said the island needed an intensive drug treatment programme for the hardened drug addicts who were using heroin or combining heroin with cocaine. He said: “Research shows those are the hardest types of addicts.”

He continued: “Sometimes we are elated about what we are getting out of drug court and other times we are frustrated. But that's the nature of drug courts all over the world.”

Mr. Greaves said the court had to deal with a lot of breaches by clients who can't stick to the straight and narrow.

“That's frustrating, we have reached stages where we might have thought a client is well on the way to recovery then we are confronted with a breach.”

He said some clients were getting nearly all the way through the final part of the five stage programme but then were found to still be using drugs. He said: “There are certain stages in drug court where probably you expect people to still be using but at phase four you should not be using.”

Those found to be using drugs are given sanctions including fines, paying the costs of drug tests, essay assignments and even being made to sit in plea court all week.

Mr. Greaves said of the court duty punishment: “It's very effective. It's a discipline. If you sit in court all day you understand how important time is. It's restricts people's liberty, no-one wants to do that.”

Spending time with policemen on their beat is another sanction being considered. This would show criminals the other side of the fence said Mr. Greaves. He said: “For someone who thinks anyone in authority is the enemy, if you put them with a person in authority like the Police they may feel these are people too, with families, who have to put up with a whole lot of stress and make tough decisions.”

People found to be lying are locked up - sometimes for a weekend but sentences up to 20 days are available. Mr. Caines said despite some early hiccups the drug court programme had a lot of merit. “I do believe a lot more can and should be done with this problem but it has merit.”

He said the magistrate, councillors and prosecution discussed each case before drug courts sessions and came to a compromise over what to do with wayward clients.

“I am a prosecutor and I want them to go to jail sometimes, but the drug court members say let's look at rehab, let's limit the penalties and look at what comes in the best interests of the defendant.

“It's my experience that everybody I thought should get their just deserts, do.

He said training he had done in Washington D.C. advised prosecutors to unlearn their traditional approach for drug court.

However Mr. Caines said there was still some penal element with minor breaking of the rules resulting in weekends in jail, enabling drug court attendees to continue in the programmes.

What is drug court?

Drug court works by offering treatment rather than a sentence to those who find themselves before the courts as a result of their drug or alcohol addiction.

Drug traffickers or those convicted of sexual or violent crimes are not eligible. The drug court is one element of Government's Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) strategy which aims to successfully rehabilitate prisoners in an effort to reduce Bermuda's high recidivism rates. Clients are given constant supervision and must take regular drug tests.