’It was the drugs/drink your honour’, and it usually is

THE MAN in the dock in Limerick District Court looks shook to say the least. Wearing the uniform of the just-arrested - grey jog pants...

THE MAN in the dock in Limerick District Court looks shook to say the least. Wearing the uniform of the just-arrested – grey jog pants and top – he’s visibly coming down off an alcohol binge, writes Limerick Post reporter Bernie English.

He can’t be named because he’s appearing in closed court in relation to breaching a court order, which ruled that he should stay away from the family home, his wife, and children.

He didn’t. He turned up drunk the day before and not for the first time.

“Is there a victim impact statement?” Judge Catherine Ryan asks.

The prosecuting Garda sergeant says there isn’t, “his wife says she is finished with him. She wants the prosecution to go ahead but she wants nothing more to do with her husband.”

The man has children, both aged under 10. Nobody has enquired whether they want any further dealings with their father. The judge is anxious that the man be allowed access to them if that can be safely arranged.

But Judge Ryan stresses that the court order means he cannot go near the family home, his wife, or his children without some pre-agreed access arrangement.

That can’t happen unless he gets sober, preferably on a residential detox and therapy course, the court believes.

This is a tough call for anyone in the throes of addiction to make. The facilities open to people who have no money are not the Betty Ford clinics of the rich and famous.

His solicitor says the man acknowledges that “alcohol has got the better of him”. He now has a conviction for breaching a court order. If he does it again, Judge Ryan warns, he’ll be adding a jail term to his CV.

He’s one of dozens of people who find themselves on the wrong side of the law through alcohol or drug addiction.

Often the offences are minor, yelling an expletive at a Garda, being drunk in public and a danger to themselves and others, staggering out into traffic – mostly just being a nuisance.

Then there is the shoplifting. In the court in recent weeks, a different man pleaded guilty to stealing two jars of Manuka honey worth more than €300 and three designer handbags.

The implication, from what his solicitor says, is that he is experiencing mental issues from abusing drugs and alcohol and he’s an easily-led target for those who supply him with drugs to go out do their dirty work for them, stealing to order.

The parade goes on every day in the District Courts, and indeed the higher courts. It can be affecting to watch, let alone experience first-hand.

Sometimes, the court can support people if they’re willing to go into residential rehab and try to deal with the problem. Mostly, judges will hand down probation supervision orders and adjourn any sentencing until the accused has had time to demonstrate that they are sincerely trying to get their act together.

And sometimes, an accused comes before the court in a state of such helpless addiction that all the defending solicitor can do is outline the situation and ask for as much clemency as possible.

These are the people who swing in and out of the revolving prison door. Their lives can be chaotic, they are at high risk of re-offending. But what can the courts do?

The prisons are at bursting point. There are seriously dangerous people who have to be locked up for the good of society – violent people who go around threatening others with weapons, those who try to intimidate individuals and helpless families into paying their son or daughter’s drug debt. People who can’t be let loose on society.

But any free legal aid representative will tell you that the overwhelming majority of cases they deal with are addiction related. They themselves don’t have an answer except to represent the client as best they can, often with both hands tied behind their backs.

No one ever woke up one morning resolving to become an addict. It’s a disease. Judges do their best, but in the end, there is often no choice but to lock people up.

Our criminal legal aid system is one of the best and fairest in the world. But our ability to help the hopelessly addicted has a lot of catching up to do.