A real release

An innovative programme has shown that the connection between drugs and crime can be broken, says Dari Taylor

It is estimated that 250,000 ‘chaotic’ hard drug users are responsible for £10 billion of crime in Britain every year and that up to 80 percent of Britain’s record-high prison population are drug users. These are daunting statistics, yet they point at one potential solution to drug-related crime. For people who, by definition, lead chaotic lifestyles, prison is perhaps the only controlled environment in which effective drug treatment may be possible. 

A working model of that possibility can be found at Holme House prison in Stockton-on-Tees. It houses 995 prisoners, over 80 percent of whom have a drug problem. What really sets it apart is its Therapeutic Community, run in association with Phoenix House, the nation’s largest drug treatment and prevention organisation. 

Based in a ‘safe’ area of the jail (a guaranteed drug-free wing) the Therapeutic Community is the living, sleeping, leisure, educational and counselling centre for prisoners who have tested consistently clean and who have applied to join the nine-to-twelve-month programme. The prison operates on the principle that individuals must want to get off drugs – officers appropriately recognise that you cannot force someone to give up. 

Its programme has three main themes: education; self-inspection; and relapse prevention. The Therapeutic Community undertakes the mammoth task of transforming drug-addicted offenders into people who have the capacity, confidence and desire to live a normal, drug- and crime-free life in the community. 

However, the team at Holme House prison understand that permanent behavioural change cannot be achieved over nine to twelve months, so they have developed a model of treatment and support that does not stop at the prison gate. 

First, the prison employs two ‘link’ workers whose prime job is to help ex-prisoners who have detoxified in prison to remain clean after release. These workers liaise with the prisoners prior to release, building up trust and maintaining contact on release, delivering support when necessary. 

Second, the link workers have developed working relationships with local authority housing departments, GPs, and employment agencies. However, the job of the link workers is made very difficult by the lack of access to resources and available community services. In particular, the shortage of suitable housing open to ex-prisoners is a critical factor. The fact is that unless an ex-prisoner has access to a home, it is virtually impossible for them to access other vital services such as employment and medical support. 

There are, therefore, three immediate problems that must be addressed. First, financial resources must be made available so that the prison service can employ sufficient link workers (Holme House has only two) to cater for prisoners on release who are clean and want to remain drug and crime free. Second, a formal structure must be established that determines a positive working relationship between link workers and all the relevant community agencies they deal with. 

Third, there is a critical need to give released prisoners who have worked hard to become ‘clean’ access to community housing, without which they will struggle to access medical and employment services. This network of support, when available to ex-prisoners on release, will help them to sustain their ‘clean’ status and, hopefully, give them the best chance of permanently breaking free from the cycle of drug misuse and crime that causes serious damage to society. 

The facts speak for themselves. Almost two-thirds of adults and 75 percent of young offenders are currently reconvicted within two years of release from prison. For many ex-prisoners recovering from drug addiction, the most welcoming community is, predictably, dealers and users. Only by employing strategies like that at Holme House prison will we have a realistic chance of breaking the cycle of drug-fuelled crime that affects many families in society, but most especially those in poor communities.

Dari Taylor is MP for Stockton South

01 Jan 1900 00:00

 

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