June 2016 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
GOVERNMENT UNVEILS
MAJOR PRISON REFORMS
SWEEPING REFORMS OF THE PRISON SYSTEM
were
announced as part of last month’s Queen’s Speech,
including the establishment of six autonomous
‘reform prisons’. Governors at these will have
‘unprecedented’ freedom in terms of budgets,
education and work and rehabilitation services,
amounting to the ‘biggest shake-up’ of the system
since the Victorian era, the government says.
More than 5,000 offenders will be housed in the
new-style institutions, including those at HMP
Wandsworth, one of the largest prisons in Europe.
Each establishment will be able to set up its own
board, enter into contracts and generate and retain
income, with statistics for each published on areas
such as self-harm, violence and employment and re-
offending rates. Many British prisons have seen an
increase in violence and self-harm associated with the
use of new psychoactive substances – particularly
synthetic cannabinoids – (
DDN
, February 2015, page
6), with HM Inspectorate of Prisons calling the
substances the ‘most serious threat’ to safety and
security in the system (
DDN
, February, page 4).
The measures announced in the Prisons Bill
meant that jails would stop being ‘warehouses for
criminals’ and become ‘places where lives are
changed’, according to Prime Minister David
Cameron. ‘Decrepit, aging’ prisons would also be
replaced with modern establishments, and there
would be action to ‘ensure better mental health
provision’ for those in the criminal justice system.
‘Prisons must do more to rehabilitate offenders,’
said justice secretary Michael Gove. ‘We will put
governors in charge, giving them the autonomy they need to run prisons in the way they think
best. By trusting governors to get on with the job we can make sure prisons are places of
education, work and purposeful activity.’
The reforms have been welcomed by RAPt (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust),
with CEO Mike Trace saying they represented a ‘welcome determination to put genuine
transformation of prisoners at the heart of prison life’. Giving governors more control was a
‘great step forward’, he said, but he cautioned that tackling the issues of drugs, mental health,
violence and education would be critical.
‘Prisoners need help to address fundamental attitudes and behaviour and inspiration from
peers who have already turned their lives around,’ he said. ‘We know this leads to hard
working and productive people who make positive contributions to their families and
communities. Prisoners need the life skills, as well as the qualifications, to get and keep a job,
which we know is vital to their long term rehabilitation.’
See news focus, page 7
MAYORAL PRIORITIES
NEW LONDON
MAYOR SADIQ
KHAN
should
make tackling
homelessness in
the capital his
‘first priority’,
according to Lead
London Home, a
campaign
launched by
Crisis, St Mungo’s
and other
charities. More than 7,500
people – including nearly 900
under-25s – were seen sleeping
rough in the capital by outreach
teams last year. ‘As he embarks
on his mayoralty, we call on
Sadiq to work with us to develop
and deliver ambitious policies to
address this problem,’ said Crisis
chief executive Jon Sparkes.
‘Sadiq Khan should
make tackling
homelessness in
the capital his
first priority.’
‘Prisoners need the life
skills, as well as the
qualifications, to get
and keep a job, which
we know is vital to
their long term
rehabilitation.’
MiKe Trace
PERSONAL TOUCH
A&E STAFF LACK THE RESOURCES
and training
to provide the personalised support needed by
people regularly attending for alcohol-related
reasons, according to an Alcohol Research UK
report. Assertive outreach strategies – in place
at around 40 per cent of emergency
departments – offer ‘good potential’ for
effective help, it says. ‘Whilst we need to
increase resources for people who frequently
attend emergency departments for alcohol-
related reasons, we must also recognise that
they are all individuals who have very different
needs,’ said lead researcher at King’s College
London, Dr Joanne Neale. ‘We must therefore
avoid stigmatising terminology and overly
simplistic generalisations that assume people
are all the same.’
The third national emergency
department survey of alcohol identification
and intervention activity at
alcoholresearchuk.org
‘Teenagers in the country’s most
deprived areas are up to three times
more likely to poison themselves –
unintentionally or deliberately – than
those in the least deprived’
POISONOUS PROBLEM
THE NUMBER OF TEENAGE POISONINGS IN THE
UK
rose by 27 per cent between 1992 and
2012, according to research by Nottingham
University, with almost 18,000 cases in all. The
largest increases were for intentional
poisonings among 16 to 17-year-old girls and
alcohol-related poisonings among 15 to 16-
year-old girls, both of which effectively
doubled, while teenagers in the country’s
most deprived areas were up to three times
more likely to poison themselves –
unintentionally or deliberately – than those in
the least deprived. ‘Since intentional and
alcohol-related adolescent poisoning rates are
increasing, both child and adolescent mental
health and alcohol treatment service provision
needs to be commissioned to reflect this
changing need,’ said lead researcher Dr
Edward Tyrrell.
MODERNISING
MOVEMENTS
A NEW REPORT
on how governments
and the UN could address ongoing
worldwide developments in
cannabis regulation and ‘help to
modernise the drug treaty system
itself’ has been published by
Swansea University.
Cannabis
regulation and the UN drug treaties
at
