low graphics version | feedback | help
| Front Page World |
| UK |
|
Northern Ireland Scotland Wales |
| UK Politics Business Sci/Tech Health Education Sport Entertainment Talking Point In Depth Audio/Video |
|
 Danny Shaw reports for BBC News"Researchers questioned 72 inmates"  real 28k |
Addicts 'committing crimes to get help'
Addicts 'are targeting jail rehabilitation schemes' |
Drug addicts have been found to be committing crimes in order to get onto rehabilitation schemes run by the criminal justice system, Radio Five Live has found.
Reporters say they have uncovered early signs that, when they cannot find a place on a scheme in the community, some addicts offend in order to get treatment from the courts, the probation service or in jail.
New research suggests prisoners who complete drug treatment programmes are three times more likely to stay off drugs than other inmates.
The results of the study, thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, have been obtained by BBC Radio Five Live.
They are described as "startling" by the agency which runs prison drug treatment programmes.
Researchers questioned 72 inmates from four prisons, six months after their release.
Cry for help
Of those who completed the course more than half were drug free, compared with one in six who failed to start or dropped out of the scheme.
One addict, who has been abusing drugs for 17 years, told Radio Five Live he had been driven to stealing from supermarkets in a bid to be arrested because there was no space on local schemes.
Alan, 32, said he had been passed from one agency to another, none of whom were able to secure funding for a place on a residential scheme.
He said he eventually resorted to crime to obtain the help he needed in prison.
"I'd go in there, pick up half a dozen bottles of Scotch, just walk out with them, stuff them in a bag as I walk out.
"No finesse, just blatantly. And if I get away with it then I get away with it, if I don't then good. Had to do that about four to five times before I was actually locked up."
The European Association for the Treatment of Addiction says Radio Five Live's findings support the case for funding to be diverted into drug services outside the criminal justice system as well as within it.
 |
 E-mail this story to a friend |
|
Links to more UK stories
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
|
| BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
 | BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
|
|
See also: |
|
|
|
 |
05 May 99 | UK Politics |
|
Prisons will 'never be drug free' |
| |
|
|
25 Jan 99 | UK Politics |
|
Prison drug smuggling crackdown |
| |
|
|
27 Jul 98 | Health |
|
'Appalling' legacy of drugs behind bars |
| |
|
|
Internet links: |
|
|
|
|
|
The European Association for the Treatment of Addiction |
| |
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites |
|
Links to other UK stories are at the foot of the page.
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~31~RS~)