GPS' BUDGETS CUT AS ADDICTS GET UKP12M TO WEAN THEM OFF HEROIN

Budgets for family doctors and other essential NHS treatments have
been cut by UKP12million in order to buy methadone for heroin addicts
in prison.

The controversial new programme represents a move away from trying to
get prisoners off drugs - the major cause of reoffending - to simply
allowing them to continue their addiction at the taxpayers' expense.

It is funded by taking money from NHS Primary Care Trusts which run
GP surgeries, walk-in treatment centres and community health projects.

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The Integrated Drug Treatment scheme, which is being tried out in 45
prisons, is likely to be expanded to jails all over the country next year.

Seventeen prisons are currently running the full programme,
prescribing the heroin substitute to wean inmates off the Class A
drug and also giving them counselling.

But the remaining 28 jails distribute methadone without providing any
psychological or psychiatric support.

Former Tory Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe said: "This is an odd
order of priorities at a time when not enough money is available for
drugs to treat Alzheimer's and blindness.

"Giving methadone to addicts in prison is not a good use of scarce
resources. What's more, it is not a particularly effective method of
treatment."

Some prison experts have privately admitted that getting prisoners
off drugs in jail may cause them to take fatal overdoses when they
are released.

They also fear a repeat of last year's case in which 200 heroin
addicts behind bars were awarded UKP700,000 out-of-court compensation
after accusing prison chiefs of forcing them to go through 'cold
turkey' rather than giving them heroin substitutes to wean them off
their addiction more slowly.

That case set a legal precedent, making prison governors reluctant to
order any short-sharp-shock treatment programmes.

The Department of Health confirmed Primary Care Trusts have put
UKP12million into the scheme so far while the Home Office has given
another UKP5million.

Last year Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust in West London
spent UKP125,786 on methadone for inmates at Wormwood Scrubs prison.
The bill for next year is expected to be nearly UKP170,000.

Brian Caton, of the Prison Officers' Association, said: "There seems
to be a move towards methadone. But some inmates respond very badly
to it. The greater need is for long-term rehabilitation once
prisoners have been released."

A Department of Health spokes-man said: "In prisons, methadone is
regarded as part of a structured range of interventions.

"We want to get people off drugs and the prison environment provides
an opportunity to do that."