A new pilot project to introduce American-style ‘drug courts’ to Northern Ireland is being developed.
They are courts aimed at keeping drug users out of prison and getting them into treatment.
A senior American judge is in Belfast to advise local judges, politicians and others working in the criminal justice system about how they operate.
Gregory Jackson was appointed to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 2005 by then President George W Bush.
His work is mostly in ‘drug courts’, first introduced in the US in 1989.
Mr Jackson spoke at Stormont on Thursday at an event organised by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland.
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Published in BBC News on March 16, 2018
