KEY POINTS:
A change of policy means Christchurch prisoners are being kept on the methadone programme for much longer - sometimes through all their sentences - according to a defence lawyer.
Previously, prisoners on the drug-substitution programme were receiving their methadone for three months in prison.
"Then it stopped, no matter what the circumstances were," defence counsel Tony Garrett said at a sentencing in Christchurch District Court today.
But under the new policy selected prisoners would be in the programme for a manageable amount of time, Mr Garrett said.
He was unable to say how long that period would be, but Judge David Saunders told of another prisoner being released after a significant term for pharmacy burglaries who had been maintained on the methadone programme all through his sentence and who had completed a drug treatment unit programme in prison.
He described it as a more realistic approach.
Mr Garrett's client, Shaun Christopher Wakefield, had been approached by Community Alcohol and Drug Service officials soon after his remand in custody six months ago, and remained on the programme.
Wakefield, a 37-year-old steel tier, pleaded guilty last week to three charges of burglary.
Judge Saunders said he had realistically admitted the offences when confronted with the results of DNA tests.
Wakefield has a criminal record stretching back nearly 20 years, stealing to support his drug habit.
"His partner has made it perfectly clear - `No more crime and no more drugs. If you do that, then you are welcome home. I am here to support you, and your daughter is here to support you'," Mr Garrett said.
Wakefield twice raided a McLeans Island Road depot to steal the hot water cylinder, copper spouting, and stainless steel sink from a relocatable house. Both times, he carried the haul away in a trailer that he stole on the site.
He also took material from a house being renovated.
The total reparations bill was $10,223, and Judge Saunders ordered Wakefield to pay that by instalments after his release. He remitted Wakefield's unpaid fines totalling $26,738.
He then imposed a two year three month prison sentence saying that Wakefield could not ask for leniency because he had already had those chances.
He recommended that Wakefield attend the Christchurch prison's drug treatment programme and the anti-offending programme which were having a significant effect on inmates.
If that were not possible, he hoped he could attend a rehabilitation programme on his release.
"If you want a future, you will certainly have to address your drug use," Judge Saunders said.
- NZPA
