Fewer inmates on drug, alcohol courses

The number of inmates participating in drug and alcohol rehabilitation courses has dropped, despite a rising prison population.

A 100-hour substance abuse programme is available for prisoners where alcohol and drug use contributed to their offending.

However despite the rising number of prisoners, many of whom are estimated to have drug or alcohol problems, the number of inmates participating in the course has dropped in recent years.

In 2002-03, 233 inmates participated in the course, 183 of whom successfully completed the programme.

The following year the number of participants dropped to 159, and 103 inmates started it in 2004-05.

National Party law and order spokesman Simon Power said the figures "laid bare" Labour's failure when it came to rehabilitation for inmates.

"This is a disgrace given that an estimated 83 per cent of our prison population have drug or alcohol problems," said Mr Power. "Rehabilitation rates should not be declining when the prison population is increasing."

Mr Power said more drugs were being found in prison and the number of positive tests for methamphetamine increased more than 13-fold between 1999 and last year.

"There has never been a stronger argument for effective rehabilitation programmes. Correction is going backwards," he said.

Probation and Offender Services General Manager Katrina Casey said the 100-hour programme was designed to make offenders analyse, understand and address the factors involved in their offending, not treat substance abuse or addiction.

Ms Casey said the number of offenders who participated in that course needed to be considered alongside those who went through other generic programmes.

In some cases there were not enough inmates to participate in the drug and alcohol programme - or it was not running in a particular location - so they started on other programmes instead.

Ms Casey said a new suite of programmes, announced last week, contained significantly more drug and alcohol content than is currently the case.

Alcohol Drug Association Chief Executive Cate Kearney said treatment providers were more concerned about the effectiveness of the programmes rather than how many inmates were participating in them each year.

Ms Kearney said there were other drug and alcohol programmes available to inmates, besides the 100-hour course.