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13/08/2004
Prison drug use and violent assault on the rise: report
There has been a significant increase in the amount of drugs used by prisoners and jails have become more violent with a significant number of serious assaults, according to a report by the Prison Reform Trust.
The report, which analyses of the Prison Service’s performance against its main targets over the past financial year and sets out how each prison performed, also found that prisons have been struggling to provide humane containment and ensure constructive activity for thousands of prisoners due to record levels of overcrowding.
The report noted that an average of 16,500 were living two to a cell designed for one person, having to defecate in front of one another and some times eat their food whilst sitting on the toilet.
The study, ‘A Measure of Success’, went on to detail Prison Service concerns that drug dealing in prisons is more ‘organised’ and has drastically cut back the number of offending behaviour programmes to invest in drug treatment.
The service failed to meet seven of its 18 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including its target of providing prisoners with an average of 24 hours a week purposeful activity, according to the report. In some local jails prisoners have been locked in their cells for up to 20 hours a day. The purposeful activity KPI has only been met once in the last nine years and will now be scrapped, it said.
The Prison Service also failed to meet its KPI on suicides with 92 prisoners taking their own lives in 2003-2004.
On the plus side, the Prison Service maintained an "excellent record" on escapes and offers "tremendous" basic skills provision.
The report’s author, Enver Solomon, said: “This report demonstrates that overcrowded jails don’t work. They are unsafe, inhumane, and ineffective. Far too many prisoners are passively serving time when they should be actively paying back the damage they have caused to communities.”
Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, added: “There is small comfort in the Prison Service’s good record on preventing escapes if people leave our overcrowded jails more, not less, likely to offend again.”
(gmcg)
The report, which analyses of the Prison Service’s performance against its main targets over the past financial year and sets out how each prison performed, also found that prisons have been struggling to provide humane containment and ensure constructive activity for thousands of prisoners due to record levels of overcrowding.
The report noted that an average of 16,500 were living two to a cell designed for one person, having to defecate in front of one another and some times eat their food whilst sitting on the toilet.
The study, ‘A Measure of Success’, went on to detail Prison Service concerns that drug dealing in prisons is more ‘organised’ and has drastically cut back the number of offending behaviour programmes to invest in drug treatment.
The service failed to meet seven of its 18 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including its target of providing prisoners with an average of 24 hours a week purposeful activity, according to the report. In some local jails prisoners have been locked in their cells for up to 20 hours a day. The purposeful activity KPI has only been met once in the last nine years and will now be scrapped, it said.
The Prison Service also failed to meet its KPI on suicides with 92 prisoners taking their own lives in 2003-2004.
On the plus side, the Prison Service maintained an "excellent record" on escapes and offers "tremendous" basic skills provision.
The report’s author, Enver Solomon, said: “This report demonstrates that overcrowded jails don’t work. They are unsafe, inhumane, and ineffective. Far too many prisoners are passively serving time when they should be actively paying back the damage they have caused to communities.”
Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, added: “There is small comfort in the Prison Service’s good record on preventing escapes if people leave our overcrowded jails more, not less, likely to offend again.”
(gmcg)
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Report Highlights Prison Drug Problem
The chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales has warned that the abuse of prescription drugs in jails has become a major concern. In his annual report, Nick Hardwick said painkillers were not detected under current drug testing procedures.
Report Highlights Prison Drug Problem
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Northern Ireland WeatherToday:A dry and sunny start but cloud bubbling up with a few showers developing from late morning. Becoming dry and sunny along the east coast in the afternoon. Maximum temperature 12 °C.Tonight:Showers gradually die out to leave good clear spells in the evening and overnight. This will allow a few fog patches to develop in places. Minimum temperature 2 °C.
