The Herald's War on P series last year produced an overwhelming reaction from readers and a swift response from the Government. This week, we revisit the people and the issues to find out what has changed.
P addicts are being recycled through the prison system to commit more crime because of a chronic shortage of community-based treatment, say drug and alcohol counsellors.
Wellington drug and alcohol assessor Roger Brooking said many judges now recognised that criminals with addiction problems needed treatment rather than jail.
But because there were not enough places in treatment programmes, most were sent to prison where they got no help and usually slipped further into drugs and crime.
Auckland Community Alcohol and Drug Services manager Robert Steenhuisen also criticised the lack of places, and called on Government ministers to improve co-ordination between the courts and the health system.
The Government is providing an extra 60 beds in rehab centres this year as part of its campaign to tackle methamphetamine abuse.
It has also promised to double the amount of drug treatment inside prison by next year.
Meanwhile judges, led by Judge John Walker in Wellington, have brought drug and alcohol experts into some courts to advise them if an offender should receive treatment instead of going to jail.
But Mr Brooking, clinical manager of ADAC (Alcohol and Drug Assessment and Counselling), said most criminals would still end up in jail because there was nowhere else for them.
A typical case would be a repeat offender who had committed half a dozen burglaries to support his drug habit. A judge would look for a community-based treatment programme for him and find a waiting list of six months.
"So the easiest option is to send this guy to prison because the offending is serious enough to warrant it. And [the judge] hopes that if he does send this guy to prison then maybe he'll get drug treatment."
Treatment in prison for drug addiction was highly unlikely because the Corrections Department used it only for high-risk offenders serving two years or more. Only about 12 per cent of prisoners received any help with their addictions, even though 90 per cent had drug and alcohol problems.
"The vast majority of them do their time, don't do any rehabilitation, are released, they relapse into alcohol and drug use, they re-offend - and within three years 50 per cent of them are back in prison."
The courts did not even pass on the assessments, "so the prison doesn't know if the person coming in has a drug and alcohol problem."
He said that overall about 250,000 New Zealanders needed treatment, especially for alcohol problems, but only about 25,000 were getting it.
Mr Steenhuisen agreed that there were not enough places, but said the courts and the district health boards also had to take some responsibility for better co-ordination.
Often a judge wanted to send an offender to a drug treatment programme at Odyssey House but the court process could drag on for months. Treatment providers could not hold a bed open for that time because they depended on district health board funding.
"If they have a person in treatment they get paid. They don't get paid for keeping beds open until the justice system has done its thing. So what we need is better co-ordination between the two systems. There are some processes happening to try to improve that but it needs to be particularly driven from a ministerial level."
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said alcohol and drug assessments ordered by judges were passed to the probation service, which was part of the Corrections Department and therefore available to prison managers.
