DRUG REHABILITATION PROGRAMME FOR PRISONERS MAY BE EXTENDED

A follow-up programme to help prison inmates stay clean after they kick
their drug habit is in the works with hopes for a September starting date.

Westgate's Alternative Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) director Kuni
Frith-Black told The Royal Gazette: "The follow-up programme will be at the
(Prison) Farm and will address relapse issues -- it would be a continuum of
care, pursuing long term sobriety." Today, if an inmate completes ASAP,
there is no follow up programme available to help them stay clean.

Ms Frith-Black said: "They have nothing to fall back on.

"The follow up programme may seep into the community, instead of just being
at the farm, but nothing is concrete yet. We are still crossing our t's and
dotting our i's."

A Supreme Court judge questioned the success of drug treatment programmes
at Westgate during a sentencing of a heroin addict last month.

Puisne Judge Norma Wade Miller questioned the lack of substantial help at
Westgate for drug abusers when sentencing Craig Wilhelm Stapff, who
admitted to breaking and entering and stealing $3,650.80 worth of liquor,
and cigarettes. He told the Court he sold the goods on Court Street, then
used the proceeds to buy crack.

Stapff, 42, of Ridgeway Road, Pembroke said he needed a follow up programme
after being released from prison.

He said he started using drugs again after he became the victim of a thief
following his release from prison.

His lawyer Mark Pettingill told the Court during the sentencing: "There is
no point taking someone to a vital stage and then leaving them on their own."

Mr. Pettingill said it was important that the public was aware of the poor
quality of drug treatment in Bermuda.

ASAP, which has 20 inmates enrolled and is a seven-month long programme, is
the first drug treatment programme at Westgate. It began two-and-a-half
years ago and meets three days a week for three hours.

Westgate also provides drug education programmes as well as such as GED,
reading, maths, Violent Offenders Programme, Habitual Offenders Programme
for non-violent offenders, a sex offenders programme, and art. In the past
it has given a black history class and a yoga class but they do not
presently exist.

When asked about drugs getting through the prison gates, Westgate
psychologist, Dr. James Buccigross, who has been working in prisons for 22
years, said: "No prison in the world is drug free. Drugs can be controlled
to a certain degree but never stopped 100 percent."

A former deputy warden in a maximum security prison in Ohio, Dr. Buccigross
said: "They are so creative in how they hide things. I have seen weapons in
body orifices and razor blades passed into mouths while inmates kiss visitors.

"In Ohio after each visit the inmates were strip-searched and sometimes
cavity searched." This type of strict security does not happen in Bermuda.

The HOP programme, headed by Dr. Buccigross, is new for Westgate -- it
began last October.

"Until I came to Westgate just over two years ago they really didn't have
anything for non-violent offenders."

The HOP programme focuses on participants giving up drugs through a
cognitive approach.

One group in HOP started with eight participants -- three graduated, three
were removed for being disruptive and a couple dropped out, said Dr.
Buccigross.

The limit for a group in HOP is 12.

The ASAP programme runs three classes per year and uses auricular
acupuncture (five points on the ear) to aid in the fight against drug
abuse. Also included in the treatment are: herbal detoxification, group
therapy, 12-step work, and drug education.

When asked what the drug education involves Dr. Buccigross said: "We teach
what the drugs do to the body, and the social impacts drugs have."

During the last class for ASAP, 80 percent of the participants tested clean
for drugs. Inmates are randomly drug tested.

ASAP combines the disease model and the relapse prevention model.

Dr. Buccigross said of the two: "Neither model captures the full essence of
addiction."

There are no plans to change the method of combining the two models because
Dr. Buccigross believes the most beneficial approach is to combine them.

Both Dr. Buccigross and Ms Frith-Black said the parole board wants inmates
to complete offence-specific treatment and will not grant parole unless
they have.

"In one class for ASAP 12 started and only four finished. Some dropped out
or got kicked out, and some had dirty urine or did not comply with their
contract," said Ms Frith-Black.

ASAP is a requirement for certain inmates if ordered by a judge -- about 70
percent complete the programme.

When asked about waiting lists to get into these programmes, Dr. Buccigross
said: "Within a year the lists have decreased."