Paulette Walker is sure she'd be dead today were it not for the saving grace of a drug treatment court.

Strung out on crack cocaine for 20 years, homeless and depressed, she tried to get clean time and again --to no avail.

Then, in 2002, busted for drug possession and sitting in an Etobicoke detention centre, an inmate told her there was another way.

Drug treatment courts offer addicts arrested for crimes an alternative to the regular court process by putting in one year of serious treatment instead of jail time.

Canada has eight drug treatment courts, and Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger and police Chief Brian Mullan want Hamilton to be No. 9.

Eisenberger is trying to set up a meeting this month with federal justice officials after meeting with the federal justice minister to discuss the possibility last year.

Walker is a peer support worker for the Toronto program. She has told her success story to United Nations and university audiences.

"It's a dream come true," says Walker, who has been able to reconnect with her son and other family members after the program. "If you had told me six years ago that I would be here today, I would say you're over the moon or something."

Walker hails from Toronto streets. There, 35 to 45 addicts a year go through the city's drug treatment court, says Shannon Coote, Toronto program manager. Roughly 40 per cent graduate.

Among the graduates, Coote says around 14 per cent re-offend compared with 75 per cent of those who get funnelled through the regular court process.

Six federally funded drug treatment courts have been rolled out across the country since 1998. Social service providers have sung their praises ever since.

The Department of Justice gives $400,000 to $750,000 annually to drug treatment courts in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg and Ottawa. Toronto's court kick-started the movement in 1998, followed by Vancouver in 2001.

Two more courts in Durham and Calgary receive no federal funding.

Would it work here?

Police media officer Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings says Mullan is compiling a report about the feasibility of the concept for Hamilton.

Eisenberger says a drug treatment court for Hamilton is a realistic goal. He points out that the federal government is looking at expanding the program into other cities anyway.

"It's a strategy that actually deals with the addiction to try and prevent crime as opposed to just the crime itself," he says.

Hamilton police have identified 80 crack addicts who repeatedly commit crimes to support their habit. A 2005 study found more than 6,600 users sought treatment for addictions in 2004.

David Lane, executive director of the John Howard Society of Hamilton, Burlington & Area, says the program holds addicts accountable for their behaviour and gives them an opportunity to be productive citizens.

His agency's Toronto branch is key in that city's drug treatment court program, providing housing for clients.

And housing is one of the critical factors in getting substance abusers back on their feet, says Dr. Lindsey George, head of services for mental health rehabilitation at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. She says employment opportunities are also key to success.

Here is a profile of a typical drug treatment court:

THE OFFENDERS
* Cocaine, crack, heroin, opiates or meth addicts
* Mostly men in 30s and 40s

HOW IT WORKS
* Crime committed ( i.e. petty theft )
* Offender arrested
* Offender pleads guilty
* Offender applies to drug treatment court
* Officials ensure offender has not committed a violent offence, such as a residential break-in, or trafficking in drugs
* Officials ensure offender is a true addict
* Stable housing provided
* Group and individual counselling provided
* Random urine tests
* Judge regularly assesses progress
* Offender receives help finding work
* After a minimum three months of abstinence, offender graduates.