JAIL 'NOT THE SOLUTION' TO DRUG CRIME

Convicted drug users should not be sent to prison because it does
more harm than good, a report from the influential UK Drug Policy
Commission will say tomorrow. Up to 65,000 prisoners in England and
Wales are thought to be problem drug users and, of these, two-thirds
are convicted of less serious crimes such as shoplifting and
burglary. The commission believes these offenders should not be jailed.

Although the report accepts that almost a third of heroin and crack
users arrested admit to committing an average of one crime a day, it
says that community treatment programmes would be more effective than prison.

The UK Drug Policy Commission, chaired by Dame Ruth Runciman, is
expected to express concerns that drug treatment programmes in
prisons have not worked and that inmates risk infection from
blood-borne viruses.

The report arrives as the problem of drug use in prison appears to be
increasing, with results from random tests revealing that heroin use
is now more widespread than cannabis.

This week's report is also expected to be highly critical of how
little known is about the effectiveness of drug treatment programmes
in prisons, despite a UKP330m investment by government.

No evaluations have been conducted to establish whether drug-free
wings and programmes based on cognitive behavioural therapy work.

With the prison population at a record high of nearly 82,000, the
commission says that the inherent pressures have created an
environment unlikely to be 'conducive to recovery'.