Drug and alcohol problems
Many prisoners enter prison with a drug or alcohol problem. The Prison Service is committed to supporting the welfare of everyone in prison and provides advice and support for these prisoners to help them tackle their addictions. Support and treatment is normally offered by the prison healthcare staff and we also work with outside agencies.
Drug services in prisons
Every prison has 'CARAT' workers. CARAT stands for 'Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare'. Everyone coming into prison who is identified as having a drug problem is assessed, given advice about their misusing, and referred to other services such as drug treatment programmes, housing, employment and external Drugs Intervention Teams to prepare for release, etc.
CARAT workers act as keyworkers and coordinate the care of those prisoners on their caseloads; workers can also provide basic information about drugs and their effects and ways to reduce harm; they may offer some structured one-to-one support and group work to prisoners who want to give up or cut down on their misusing. They can also refer a prisoner to a drug treatment rehabilitation programme.
Detoxification
Many prisons provide other services for drug misusers. All local prisons and remand centres offer a detoxification service for prisoners withdrawing from drugs or alcohol. Some prisons are now also able to provide substitution (ie ‘methadone maintenance' programmes) as part of the Integrated Drug Treatment System for adult prisons.
Treatment Programmes
More prisons are now offering treatment programmes (both rehabilitation programmes and therapeutic communities) for prisoners wanting to tackle their drug problem.
The programmes offered vary widely. Some are run entirely by outside drug workers, some by prison officers, and some by a mixture of both. Some last a few weeks, others up to 18 months. The prisoner will be expected to give up misusing while on the programme. Many programmes are run on Voluntary Testing Units, where prisoners are regularly tested for drugs
