Written Answers. - Drug Treatment Services.
Liz McManus
Question:
358
Ms McManus
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
the number and proportion of prisoners admitted who are drug addicts; the number and proportion who receive addiction counselling while serving their sentence; the number and proportion who receive psychiatric or psychological therapy for mental disturbance or personal problems related to their addiction; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[26943/99]
Precise statistics on the number and proportion of prisoners admitted who are drug abusers are difficult to collate. Statistics in each prison are based on voluntary information supplied by the offender and rely largely on the willingness of the prisoner to give full and frank details. On committal to prison each prisoner is interviewed to establish personal, medical, psychiatric and drug history. Subject to this important qualification, an estimate of the proportion of prisoners admitted to the committal prisons who are recorded as drug abusers is set out in the following table.
|
Institution
|
Approximate proportion of prisoners admitted who are drug addicts
|
|
Mountjoy
|
44%
|
|
St Patrick's Institution
|
60-70%
|
|
Cork
|
15%
|
|
Limerick
|
2.5%
|
|
Castlerea
|
*
|
*Since the inauguration of Castlerea Prison as a committal prison in September 1998, five committals were active drug users. There are no active drug users in Castlerea at present.
In recent years, two studies have examined more closely the prevalence of drug abuse among the prison population. The first, a study of Irish female prisoners, published in 1996 showed that 60 of the 100 women interviewed had taken drugs at some stage in their lives. Fifty-nine of the 60 women were still taking drugs on their committal to prison. The majority – 92% – of the drug addicts were chronic users i.e. they used drugs more than or equal to once a day. One in four of the women were thought to have an alcohol problem by the interviewing doctor.
The second, Dr. Paul O'Mahony's report entitled Mountjoy Prisoners; A Sociological and Criminological Profile researched drug misuse in prisoners there. Published in June 1997, Dr. O'Mahony's report states that, in ten years since 1986, the proportion of the prison population that had used drugs other than cannabis had more than doubled from 37% to 77% and the proportion that could be described as having a serious dependency on a hard drug also more than doubled from 31% to 63%. The number who said they drank alcohol when free had reduced however, from 87% in 1986 to 68% in 1996. Some 19% admitted an alcohol problem or had been in treatment for alcoholism.
A third in depth study in relation to drug misuse in the prison population is presently being conducted, on behalf of my Department, by the Health Research Board, under the supervision of Ms Rosalyn Moran, head of it's drug misuse research division.
The number of prisoners attending the Probation and Welfare Service, the psychology service and the psychiatric service in the committal prisons either for treatment in relation to their addiction or other therapy is outlined in the table below:
|
Institution
|
Addiction
|
Psychological
|
Psychiatric
|
|
Counselling
|
Therapy
|
therapy
|
|
Cork
|
24 (group)
|
25
|
41
|
|
16 (individual)
|
|
|
|
St Patrick's
|
25
|
36
|
36
|
|
Limerick
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
|
Fort Mitchel
|
4 group programmes per year accommodating 8/10 per group
|
0
|
8
|
|
Mountjoy**
|
P&W Service
|
972
|
553
|
*Psychologist and psychiatrist visit once a week. No figure available for the number of drug addicts receiving therapy.
**Offenders attending the psychologist and psychiatrist may be repeat attendees, therefore it is not possible to give an accurate figure. The reasons for visits are subject to medical confidentiality.
In the other places of detention, including the three open centres, there is a range of support programmes for drug users, including counselling from the Probation and Welfare Service and the psychology service and links with community-based treatment programmes.
Addiction counselling is undertaken primarily in the prison service by the Probation and Welfare Service. The degree of counselling varies from prison to prison. The counselling provided by the Probation and Welfare Service is delivered in conjunction with other partners such as Coolmine and the Talbot Centre in St. Patrick's and the AA, NA, Youth Action Project Ballymun, Coolmine and the Anna Liffey Centre in Mountjoy. The Probation and Welfare Service in Wheatfield works alongside the Ballyfermot Local Drugs Task Force, Coolmine, Narcotics Anonymous, the Ballymun Youth Action Project, Killenarden Drugs Programme and Rialto Drugs Awareness Group.
In addition, the probation and welfare service in Mountjoy co-ordinates an intensive seven week drug rehabilitation programme in the health care unit. This programme commenced in July 1996 and 225 prisoners have undertaken the treatment to date. A second, 11 week, abstinence based drug rehabilitation programme will commence in the health care unit in January 2000.
The action plan on drug misuse and drug treatment in the prison system which I approved earlier this year provides a detailed strategy to raise the level of treatment for drug addicted offenders. This includes the expansion of detoxification facilities, more drug free areas and the provision of methadone maintenance. The provision of addiction counselling support services is central to the plan. I have asked the director general of the Prisons Service to establish a national steering group on drug treatment for prisoners. The director general has agreed to chair the steering group himself to signal the importance that is attached by Government to this issue.
