prisons - search results

[…] addiction who have turned their lives around. Co-presented by film star Jason Flemyng and Forward Trust Director Julie Muir, Series 2 opens with an interview with former Prisons Minister Rory Stewart.  Former Prisons Minister Rory Stewart.  Now no longer constrained by government office, Rory Stewart is quizzed on how he views the problem of […]

[…] ‘Similarly those caught smuggling drugs into prison should receive higher sentences because of the impact on prisoners fighting drug addiction and the threat to good order in prisons,’ it says. The panel also calls for an end to the long sentences given to drug couriers for their ‘minor roles in smuggling operations’, as they […]

[…] in prison have addiction issues and many suffer mental health problems. The government drug strategy sets out ambition to tackle substance abuse by building recovery communities within prisons and beyond, but I am saddened at the lack of recovery groups, which could seriously reduce the reoffending rate. Is it really so difficult to start […]

[…] for life, they should be used as learning structures not crutches. Mental health problems are for life, but addictions can stop. People need to realise addictions are prisons and the pursuit of drugs is slavery. Childhood trauma cannot be cured by drugs. Personal support and understanding should go a long way. Seventy per cent […]

The DDN letters page, where you can have your say. The next issue of DDN will be out on 6 October — make sure you send letters and comments to claire@cjwellings.com by Wednesday 24 September to be included. Letters may be edited for space or clarity – please limit submissions to 350 words.   Mind the prejudice After […]

[…] activist in the late ’80s and early ’90s, in 1993 he took a job in what remains the only community-based HIV project in Canada working exclusively in prisons. ‘I was one of the first staff they hired when they got funding,’ he says. ‘I had no background in HIV, but I knew prisons and […]

[…] line’ in its guidance. ‘There’s a clear absence there that needs to be addressed,’ he acknowledged. There was also the highly charged issue of needle exchanges in prisons. ‘They definitely should be in prisons,’ stressed Chris Ford. ‘Needles are already in prisons, and they’re the contaminated ones,’ commented one delegate. 23 March 2009 | […]

[…] line’ in its guidance. ‘There’s a clear absence there that needs to be addressed,’ he acknowledged. There was also the highly charged issue of needle exchanges in prisons. ‘They definitely should be in prisons,’ stressed Chris Ford. ‘Needles are already in prisons, and they’re the contaminated ones,’ commented one delegate. 23 March 2009 | […]

The prevention of deaths in custody and after release needs to be ‘central to all work on substance misuse in the criminal justice system’, according to a report from the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). A whole-system approach is needed to prevent drug and […]

[…] published in 2014 and using data from the Police National Computer (PNC) database, showed a 31 per cent reconviction rate for graduates of our programmes in male prisons, an 18 per cent drop in reconviction rates and a 65 per cent reduction in the volume of re-offending. The establishment of the Justice Data Lab […]

[…] to Paul Goggins, who continues as a Home Office minister, supporting Hazel Blears on policing, security and community safety. Mr Goggins has been responsible for drugs in prisons in his role as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State forcorrectional services and reducing re-offending. He moved from the Department of Education and Employment with David Blunkett […]

Dog handler Wilkes with his three-year old black lab and dog handler McColvin with her 18-month-old springer spaniel. The job of detecting drugs in prisons falls to a very keen team, as DDN discovers. It’s Tuesday morning at the village sports and social club. Three people stand in a line inside the venue, about […]

[…] helping to give people an opportunity to connect with community services on release and lessening the risk of dropping out. When it came to reducing demand, many prisons had enhanced airport-like security and trained drug dogs, partly to address the issue of staff bringing in drugs. ‘But people are ingenious and prisons are being […]

[…] to Paul Goggins, who continues as a Home Office minister, supporting Hazel Blears on policing, security and community safety. Mr Goggins has been responsible for drugs in prisons in his role as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State forcorrectional services and reducing re-offending. He moved from the Department of Education and Employment with David Blunkett […]

New treatment for hepatitis C has opened up massive opportunity for all-round health gains that we are just not taking, hears DDN. We need to look at syndemics, said Charles Gore – when a set of linked health problems such as hepatitis C, drug and alcohol issues, mental health and homelessness interact to increase the […]

There has been a ‘doubling’ of drug-free wings in prisons, the government has announced. ‘New incentivised substance-free living units’ are now operating in 45 jails in England and Wales, it says, with up to 100 special blocks planned by 2025 alongside special abstinence-based recovery wings.   The aim is to reduce the risk of reoffending […]

[…] an apprenticeship immediately. We then work with our partner Umbrella Training to link them in with suitable apprenticeships upon release. The PAP is being delivered in three prisons: HMP Isis in London and HMPs Hollesley Bay and Highpoint, both in Suffolk. It will support 100 people with at least 50% starting an apprenticeship standard […]

Phoenix Futures recently launched a report looking at the state of residential treatment provision in England. Through a series of blogs and articles, Phoenix continues to explore the theme of Making Rehab Work. The experiences of people involved with substances, crime and the justice system are complicated. Drug offences accounted for 16% of all prison […]

[…] kind or another, and when I look around all I see is despair reflected in the eyes of those trapped in the cycle of substance use. Our prisons have become warehouses, revenue-generating machines processing the lost souls of addicts on a conveyor belt destined towards a revolving door. For those of you whose images […]

[…] that undermine security. These are long-standing issues that will not be resolved in weeks or months but our wholescale reforms will lay the groundwork to transform our prisons, reduce reoffending and make our communities safer.’ ‘It is official – more people died in prisons in 2016 than in any other year on record, and more […]

[…] still a huge menace, we need to have a debate that also reflects the progress that’s being made, says drugs minister Paul Goggins. Since switching roles from Prisons Minister after May’s general election, Goggins has set about demonstrating that investment is producing results. Use of Class A drugs is stable, he points out. Use […]

[…] provide is the response of Michael Howard as home secretary in the mid nineties to information that suggested that there was a big drug problem in our prisons. He stridently denied it, but quickly introduced drug testing. Unfortunately, punishments were given in response to positive tests regardless of which drug was used. Because the […]

[…] been collaborating with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to share and develop content for ‘Launchpad’, a digital content hub that is currently available in 15 prisons through in-cell technology, with plans for further expansion in due course. Inspiration & motivation We started our collaboration with HMPPS by sharing More Than My Past ‘life stories’ […]

Anti-stigma campaigns in prison settings can have a huge impact, says Lashandra. My name is Lashandra, and I work for an addiction treatment charity inside a prison. Working in this setting I often witness stigma against people who use substances – it’s so commonplace that you could easily become resigned to it. I often hear […]

[…] Gambling firm's record £17m fine 'This is the second  time this operator  has fallen foul of  rules in place to  make bamblinb  safer and crime  free... They should  be aware that we  will be monitorinb  them very carefully.' ANDREW RHODES ‘It’s important  for politicians to  understand that the  public recobnises  the complexity of  the issues at stake,  and has moved on  from a blanket war  on drubs sensibility.’ MIKE TRACE forwardtrust.org.uk WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM THE GOVERNMENT is to roll out ‘up  to’ b8 new drug recovery wings in  prisons across England and Wales  by 2025, it has announced, as  well as increasing the number ovf  ‘incentivised substance-fvree’ (ISF)  living units from 25 to b00. Prisovners  in the ISF units wvill be regularly drug  tested but will also receive peer  support and incentives such as extra  gym time to reward progress. They  can then move to the new recovery  wings for six months of further  intensive treatment, where they  will be encouraged to work towards  abstinence from all drugs includving  substitute medications. The approach will ‘follow them  through the prison gavte, with  offenders kept under closer control  in the community with more  drug testing, treatment and extra  support’, the government states.  Fifty ‘health and justvice partnership  co-ordinators’ will also work  between prisons, probation and  treatment providers to help ensuvre  the smooth transfer of treatment  plans from prison to the community.  The £b20m funding for the recovery  […]

[…] the past 16 years (six of them as director of family ser vices in a community-based agency). He is currently a DANOS assessor for substance workers in prisons, community-based agencies, statutory agencies and supported housing ser vices. His website is at www.stevemillsconsultancy.com 26 January 2009 | drinkanddrugsnews| 11 Treatment | Family involvement www.drinkanddrugsnews.com Desperately […]

[…] the '80s to see a move to ‘zero tolerance’ and ‘just say no’. ‘People were shifted from systems of care to systems of control,’ he said. ‘ Prisons became big business in the US.’ However the 1990s witnessed a backlash against the ‘re-stigmatisation, re-criminalisation and de-medicalisation’ of the previous decade – by now the […]

[…] became involved in the IHRA conference in 2007 as director of services at Cranstoun, which at the time managed the European Network on Drugs and Infections in Prisons (ENDIP). When ENDIP got involved in a joint bid with the fledgling Conference Consortium to run the event in Warsaw, it was natural that he should […]

[…] but overall successive governments have been utterly failing the disadvantaged, maligned, and ever increasing population shoved out of sight behind bars. As a result, the article explains, prisons are in perpetual crisis. It is hardly surprising that their residents like taking heroin, or anything else that might help to obliterate their misery. It does […]

Our prisons are in crisis and we need to take a whole system approach to managing it, said Darren Nicholas, assistant director of services at Cranstoun. The options of diversion and deflection provided value for money, but they also offered ‘better and more effective ways to bring down offending rates’. Diversion schemes were about […]

[…] able to develop a sense of self and purpose that correlates with their identity and responsibilities as a parent. Working with fathers at a grassroots level in prisons, we hear more than just their determination to not commit crimes but also their joy at developing skills that allow them to parent their children:    ‘Knowledge […]

The widespread use of synthetic cannabinoids like ‘spice’ in UK prisons is risking the health of nurses and other staff, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The RCN has written to the head of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) asking for prison governors to do more to protect nurses and other […]

[…] residents was now incarcerated, and drug offenders had contributed substantially to the rising prison population. Crack cocaine accounted for seven out of ten drug offenders in US prisons, and almost a quarter were in prison for their first drug offence. Analysing the seriousness of many incarcerated drug offenders, Mr Sevigny concluded that very few […]

[…] from Black and Minority Ethnic individuals and from those in recovery from addiction. NO AGENCIES PLEASE www.rapt.org.uk Registered Charity no. 1001701 CARAT Teams CARAT Managers: London HM Prisons (Wandsworth, Holloway); HMP Winchester, Hants; HMP Bullingdon, Oxon Starting Salary £27,000 (plus £1,000 London Weighting for units located within M25)We are looking for a CARAT Manager […]

[…] of their sentence. The government has also announced an increase in probation funding, alongside a ‘massive expansion’ in surveillance of offenders through increased use of tagging. ‘Our prisons are, once again, running out of space and it is vital that the implications are understood,’ said the lord chancellor, Shabana Mahmood. ‘If our prisons collapse, […]

[…] from Black and Minority Ethnic individuals and from those in recovery from addiction. NO AGENCIES PLEASE www.rapt.org.uk Registered Charity no. 1001701 CARAT Teams CARAT Managers: London HM Prisons (Wandsworth, Holloway); HMP Winchester, Hants; HMP Bullingdon, Oxon Starting Salary £27,000 (plus £1,000 London Weighting for units located within M25)We are looking for a CARAT Manager […]

[…] residents was now incarcerated, and drug offenders had contributed substantially to the rising prison population. Crack cocaine accounted for seven out of ten drug offenders in US prisons, and almost a quarter were in prison for their first drug offence. Analysing the seriousness of many incarcerated drug offenders, Mr Sevigny concluded that very few […]

[…] abounds and prisoners with mental health issues slip through the cracks,’ said Liberal Democrat shadow justice secretary Jonathan Marks. ‘The simple fact is we will never turn prisons into places of rehabilitation and reform unless we send far fewer people to jail. The government has finally admitted that prisons must act as places of […]

[…] representatives from all areas of family support – not just those working directly in drug and alcohol treatment, but professionals with expertise in parenting, child poverty, schools and prisons. They looked at issues from family members’ perspectives, and shared knowledge and expertise. We may be looking across a very uncertain commissioning landscape but it’s good […]

[…] validity of the act as it exempts substances on precedence rather than on harm, leading to a lively question and answer session afterwards. Later on, minister for prisons, Andrew Selous discussed NPS use in prisons, citing a rise in violence related to NPS use as a serious problem. Selous informed delegates that ‘NPS testing […]

[…] multiple community groups including Gamblers Anonymous, Alcoholic Anonymous and housing provider drop-ins. The Rt Hon Lord Bradley PC (a life peer and former Minister of State for Prisons) opened the hub. He said : “I’m delighted to be officially opening the RECONNECT Hub, an important facility which has the potential to make a real […]

[…] Contact Vikky Bullock, Cranstoun Drug Services e: vbullock@cranstoun.org.uk. 7-9 July 8th European conference on drugs and infections in prison This year's event is ‘Unlocking potential – making prisons safe for everyone’. Covering throughcare and after care, multi-agency working in practice, and harm reduction. Contact Salma Master. e: smaster@cranstoun.org.uk WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS Please note that […]

We’ve seen a swathe of major policy announcements over the last couple of months, most notably the much-anticipated Independent Sentencing Review and last week’s Spending Review, writes Change Grow Live executive director Vicki Markiewicz. Together, they offer a powerful opportunity to reimagine how we support people with drug and alcohol support needs in contact with […]

[…] evidenced-based approach for people who use substances, and in May 2020 we carried out a gap analysis and explored what was available within Nottingham, Lowdham and Ranby prisons. From this, we found that the treatment available was costly and identified that a treatment course was needed that incorporated accessible language and a person-centred approach […]

[…] 18–27 year olds in the Kent and Medway area who have been in a secure setting and are about to leave. The project will run from two prisons – HMPs Elmley and Rochester – with the overall aim of helping these young people reduce or end reoffending behaviours and attend services they might otherwise […]

[…] 14 Background Briefing Prof David Clark on conditioning models of addiction (part 1). 15 Jobs, courses, conferences, tenders 16 Drink and Drugs News Once again this country’s prisons have been declared at bursting point this week, to the point where we’re looking at shipping prisoners abroad or extending the experiment of holding them in […]

[…] required. Delivery of the training and drug awareness seminars will also be your responsibility; therefore you must have a good knowledge of the National Drug Strategy within Prisons. A sound knowledge of drugs, the treatment and interventions available within the prison as well as the community would also be beneficial. Ideally you will be […]

[…] (DRRs). Improvements have been promised to prison drug programmes, including a pledge to bring prison clinical drug treatment ‘to at least a minimum evidence-based standard across all prisons’ by 2011. The Ministry has also pledged to look at the potential for offering more community-based sentences for substance misusers as an alternative to prison. Miss […]

[…] all, prison medical services are now all Primary Care Trusts’ responsibility and provided by primary care doctors. If anything, since daily supervised consumption is the norm in prisons, it is safer to give larger doses if needed. A simple solution is asked for by John Belstead – well here are two to star t […]

Kaleidoscope’s recent conference stimulated valuable debate on how women affected by drug and alcohol issues could be better supported in the community. Sarah Orrell reports. Cardiff City Stadium hosted Kaleidoscope’s informative and inspirational March conference, Women affected by drug and alcohol issues. More than 200 delegates attended and the packed itinerary included persuasive speakers from […]

[…] Contact Vikky Bullock, Cranstoun Drug Services e: vbullock@cranstoun.org.uk. 7-9 July 8th European conference on drugs and infections in prison This year's event is ‘Unlocking potential – making prisons safe for everyone’. Covering throughcare and after care, multi-agency working in practice, and harm reduction. Contact Salma Master. e: smaster@cranstoun.org.uk W ORKSHOPS & SEMINARS Please note […]

People leaving prison are far more likely to die of a drug related cause. We know the overdose reversal drug naloxone saves lives, we just need to put this knowledge into practice. Last year my colleague Karen Tyrell wrote about drug related deaths in The Guardian, focusing on a “guitar playing Scot called Stuart” who she […]

[…] an apprenticeship immediately. We then work with our partner Umbrella Training to link them in with suitable apprenticeships upon release. The PAP is being delivered in three prisons: HMP Isis in London and HMPs Hollesley Bay and Highpoint, both in Suffolk. It will support 100 people with at least 50% starting an apprenticeship standard […]

[…] that dwindled to seven programmes and 300 participants before the pandemic lockdowns. Of course, all these programmes closed down fully during the lockdowns, as group activity in prisons was forbidden. We are now engaged in a drive to re-introduce our programmes wherever possible – re-training staff, re-establishing referral pathways and therapeutic delivery, and negotiating […]

 Inside learning Time for a critical look at our prisons  AT FIRST GLANCE you might wonder why we’ve devoted most of this issue to reports about criminal justice system. At second glance you might wonder why these issues are of relevance to you. But the opportunity to share experience with other countries gives fresh perspective and […]

We’re all too familiar with the revolving door to prison. Now it seems that prison culture is to be reformed from the top, with governors of new-style establishments given ‘unprecedented’ freedom to introduce education, work and rehabilitation services. Former prison governor John Podmore is entirely behind the need to mend a broken system and address […]