CASH BOOST TO KEEP ADDICTS OUT OF PRISON

McLeish announces UKP8m for alternatives to custody Jenny Booth Home
Affairs Correspondent

Efforts to cut crime and reduce the growing number of suicides in Scottish
jails will receive an UKP8 million cash injection today when the Government
announces the "biggest boost in a generation" for alternatives to prison
custody

Henry Mcleish, the Scottish home affairs minister, will announce that an
extra 25 per cent will be added to the UKP34 million spent this year on
probation, community service and supervised attendance orders.

Most of the new money, which has become available under the comprehensive
spending review, will be devoted to cutting crime related to drugs.

Much of the increase is expected to go to the proposed drug treatment and
testing orders and to electronic tagging, both aimed at rehabilitating and
stabilising repeat offender addicts who have chaotic lifestyles and commit
multiple crimes to feed their habit These crimes could he cut if drug
addiction levels were reduced.

It is also hoped that, by treating drug addicts instead of jailing them,
Scotland's unacceptably high level of prison suicides - more than double
the level of England and Wales, and mainly among heroin addicts in the west
of Scotland - will fall.

Prison reform campaigners warned that the money, while welcome, should be
carefully targeted. The Scottish National Patty said that, over three years
and taking inflation into account, the rise was not as significant as it
seemed.

Last night, Mr Mcleish said. "The focus is on providing the widest number
of alternatives to custody with an emphasis on tackling drugs. We want to
really set in motion more effective strategies in tackling the causes of
crime."

The Scottish Office has chosen to make today's announcement at a bail
hostel in Edinburgh, because part of the money will go towards providing
more bail beds for prisoners on remand.

Three weeks ago, Scotland suffered its worst spate of prison suicides, as
four men and one woman hanged themselves while in jail awaiting trial.

Mr Mcleish said that the crackdown on drugs would he two-pronged; trying to
divert addicts from prison to wean them off their habit, and clamping down
on drags inside prison through mandatory drug testing, rehabilitation and
drug-free areas.

"People in prison should receive the highest and most intensive form of
rehabilitation. But before they get to prison we should try to treat them
in the community," he said. "All this feeds into the agenda of reducing
deaths in prison. An the different areas of the criminal justice system
need to be working coherently in order to be more effective."

Roseanna Cunningham, the justice spokeswoman for the SNP said that Mr
McLeish was right to target money on options to custody but, spread over
three years and after inflation, the sum was not as generous as it sounded.
"I would be concerned to know where this money has been found from, in case
depriving one area of cash cancels out the good that's being done
elsewhere," Ms Cunningham said.

She said that the cut in funding to the Crown Office - of 4.4 per cent in
real terms over the next three years, on its A349 million budget - would
have a seriously damaging effect on the efficiency of justice.

Tracey Thomson, the wife of a fifth man who attempted suicide in prison,
David Thomson, said: "The deaths are all down to drugs. that's the main
point.

"David is very bad with withdrawal from methadone [a GP- prescribed heroin
replacement] at the moment and he's getting worse instead of better. It is
a disgrace that Greenock prison doesn't prescribe methadone, unlike
Edinburgh and Cornton Vale.

"All they're giving him for the symptoms is two yellow Valium, which is not
very much when you have been on 75ml of methadone a day."

Mr Thomson was found hanging by staff in Greenock prison after he was
traumatised by the deaths of his friends and fellow addicts, Gavin Hester
28, in Greenock prison, and Mary Cowan, 27, in Cornton Vale women's prison,
the previous week.

Mrs Thomson was barred from visiting her husband yesterday on allegations
that she was smuggling drugs to him. She vigorously denies the accusation
and says that without her regular visits he may try to kill himself again.

A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said that officers had the right to
exclude people suspected of smuggling drugs and that Mrs Thomson should
raise the issue formally with the governor today.

Susan Matheson, the chief executive of the prison reform charity SACRO,
urged the Scottish Office to target the money carefully.

She said. "It would really make a difference if a proportion of the UKP8
million could be dedicated to ball supervision projects across Scotland
similar to the project we are running in Edinburgh and Midlothian, which
is estimated to have saved the taxpayer UKP3,400 per case."

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)