Major boost for inmates' addiction treatment

The Government has agreed to increase the number of male prisoners getting intensive drug and alcohol treatment almost six-fold and will start providing methadone to all prisoners who were on it when they were jailed.

The two changes represent a dramatic turnaround since an Ombudsman's report in December said it was "extraordinary" that only 2 per cent of prisoners would get intensive alcohol and drug treatment this year.

Drug and alcohol agencies have lobbied for years for more treatment and methadone maintenance, which the Corrections Department has resolutely opposed until now.

"This is great news," said the deputy chair of the National Committee for Addiction Treatment, Cate Kearney.

"What it means is that the comments and concerns that have been coming from the alcohol and drug sector providers have been picked up by the minister."

Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor said yesterday that beds in intensive drug and alcohol centres for male prisoners would expand from 22 at Waikeria Prison near Te Awamutu at present to 60 at Waikeria and 60 at a new centre at Christchurch Prison.

"The Corrections Department is also considering options for the development of another unit at a prison in the lower half of the North Island," he said.

Treatment beds for female prisoners will stay at 20, all at Arohata Prison near Wellington.

The department's assistant general manager for women's and specialist services, Bridget White, said the department had also agreed with the Ministry of Health that it would maintain prisoners on methadone if they were on the drug at the time they were sentenced.

Until now, methadone has been maintained only for prisoners who are pregnant, have other health complications such as hepatitis or HIV, need methadone for pain relief or are being jailed for such a short time that they will be released before methadone withdrawal can be completed.

In practice, this means that 267 of the 331 prisoners who had been on methadone when they were jailed in 2003-04 were kept on the drug in jail. The other 64 were forced to go off it, and will now be allowed to stay on it.

"We reviewed it with the Ministry of Health, looking at the recent literature and practice in other jurisdictions, and agreed to change the policy," Ms White said.

"Prisoners are actually entitled to receive equivalent health care that they would in the community. By maintaining people on the methadone programme we are facilitating that process."

The methadone programmes will operate in all but the smallest jails and will be funded by district health boards.

The department closed an intensive drug and alcohol programme run by its own staff at Christchurch Prison last year because it said its staff "lacked the expertise and collegial support" of programmes run by outside experts. It has signed a four-year contract with the former National Society on Alcohol and Drug Dependence (NSAD), now called Care NZ, to provide all three intensive programmes at Waikeria, Arohata and Christchurch.

Ms Kearney welcomed both policy shifts, but said the jails also needed pre-treatment group counselling to motivate prisoners to go into treatment, and follow-up support to prevent relapse.

Wellington drug and alcohol counsellor Roger Brooking said the expanded programmes were "a step in the right direction" but should be replicated in all of the country's 19 jails.

Surveys have shown that 83 per cent of prisoners have abused or been dependent on alcohol or other drugs.