Ceist:
140 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he has satisfied himself that the investment in rehabilitation and addiction treatment for prisoners is adequate. [25839/00]
Written Answers. - Prison Drug Treatment Services.
One of the prime objectives of the Prison Service is to develop and put in place an enhanced range of rehabilitative measures which will be made available to all prisoners. The Prison Service already provides a wide range of rehabilitative programmes, many of which are available to the general body of prisoners. These have the dual purpose of providing prisoners with purposeful activity while serving their sentences and encouraging them to lead non-offending lives on release. The following are examples of the facilities available.
CONNECT 2000-2006 is an action-research project which is run by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in collaboration with the National Training and Development Institute of the Rehab Group. This project focuses on prisoners' transition from custody, through training to reintegration in the community after release and labour market participation.
The project was run on a pilot basis under funding from the EU INTEGRA employment initiative from 1998-2000. Research was carried out and based on this research, pilot strategies and systems were developed and implemented to fill the gaps discovered in current development programmes for prisoners and to improve the employment prospects of offenders in Mountjoy Prison, the Dóchas Centre and the training unit. The project is being extended to the other prisons in the State during the period 2000-2006.
The OPTIONS programme, which has been successfully implemented in Mountjoy Prison, Dóchas Centre and the training unit, was designed to provide an opportunity for offenders to explore their career options and to take part in personal development modules. The aims of the programme are: to prepare participants for work-training-education; to enable participants to make informed choices with regard to which developmental activity to take part in prison; to encourage participants to think of the future when making this choice; and to encourage them to take full responsibility for their own development.
Selection for the programme is based on a four stage process designed to ensure that those who apply are motivated to take part. Entry criteria are that the prisoner is motivated to become involved in work-training-education, is not currently abusing drugs to the extent that they cannot take an active part in programme activities and preferably is unclear as to his-her vocational direction.
Participants are given the opportunity to give feedback on a regular basis regarding the relevance of course content, their experiences on the programme and new developments they can suggest. This encourages participants to take responsibility for their ownership of the programme and ensures that the facilitator and CONNECT project staff are constantly in touch with what is and is not working in the programme and can make the necessary changes.
Particular emphasis is placed on the rehabilitation of young offenders in custody and, accordingly, a wide range of services is made available as set out hereunder. Efforts are made locally by the governor of each institution to co-ordinate the work of the various services.
Education Service: This service is provided in conjunction with vocational education committees. A wide range of academic subjects are covered enabling inmates to cover the normal school curriculum and to study for and sit examinations set by the Department of Education and Science.
Vocational Training: Training in various vocational skills is available to offenders, including juveniles, with some inmates going on to take City and Guilds examinations. Vocational training is intended not only to provide an occupation for prisoners while they are in custody but to produce skills which are relevant for offenders after they leave prison.
Library Service: Library facilities are provided in conjunction with the Public Library Service.
Sports-Physical education: A wide range of sports and recreational facilities is available to inmates.
Psychology Service and Probation and Welfare Service: The prison Psychology Service and Probation and Welfare Service provides counselling to help offenders to deal with their offending and cope during their time in custody.
Medical Services: A full range of medical services is available to inmates, including medical drug detoxification programmes.
Addiction Counselling: Addiction counselling is provided in conjunction with and by various outside agencies such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. In certain cases juvenile offenders with a drugs problem may be granted temporary release conditional upon their attendance at a community based addiction counselling centre.
Chaplaincy Service: The work of the chaplaincy service involves extensive counselling of offenders, not just in spiritual matters but in everyday human activity.
The Alternatives to Violence Project is run in a number of prisons. It is an experiential programme to help prisoners learn new skills, alter their attitudes and move towards leading fulfilling and crime-free lives. The project takes the form of weekend workshops. The aims are to build self-esteem and trust, improve communication skills, develop co-operative attitudes that avoid competitive conflict and allow people to try out new and creative ways of resolving conflicts.
There are four forms of direct therapeutic intervention available to sex offenders within the Irish prison system at present. All four are aimed at enabling such offenders gain some measure of control over their offending behaviour.
The first intervention method is individual counselling from the Department's psychology service and from the Probation and Welfare Service. This is a largely demand led service to individual prisoners who ask for help.
The second intervention is a multi-disciplinary thinking skills group work programme which focuses on issues such as anger management, evasion of personal responsibility and relapse prevention. This programme has been in place in Cork Prison and Arbour Hill Prison since 1998 and has recently been introduced in the Curragh Place of Detention.
The third intervention which tends to receive most media coverage is the extremely intensive offence focused group work programme which is available in Arbour Hill Prison and which is delivered by officers of the Probation and Welfare and psychology services of the Department. This programme can cater for up to ten offenders at one time and takes ten to 11 months to complete. The emphasis is on accepting personal responsibility for the offence and developing effective relapse prevention strategies for each offender. All convicted sex offenders, regardless of the institution in which they are held, are invited to apply for inclusion in this programme. A second programme will be introduced in the Curragh Place of Detention by the end of this month.
The fourth intervention which perhaps deserves greater acknowledgement involves the psychiatric service which provides extensive support to prisoners in this category. This is done on a sessional basis, and a call-out basis as well as in response to particular individual crises.
It is widely acknowledged that addiction, particularly to alcohol, is a root cause of domestic violence. Addiction counselling is provided in conjunction with and by various outside agencies such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
The prison service has already developed the following programmes to tackle drug addiction among the prison population: all committals to Mountjoy and St Patrick's who misuse drugs are offered a 14 day detoxification programme; all committals to Cloverhill Remand Prison who misuse drugs are offered a 21 day detoxification programme, or less depending on their remand period; all committals to Cloverhill Remand Prison who are involved in a drug maintenance programme in the community prior to committal are allowed to continue their programmes while in custody there; ongoing addiction counselling and education programmes; community based agencies visit prisons to provide support services and information, including individual counselling as required; an information forum is provided by the education-welfare services to prisoners informing them of the risks posed by communicable diseases; and a detoxification and drug free unit is in operation in Mountjoy and an intensive drug free therapy programme co-ordinated by the Probation and Welfare Service and delivered by a multi-disciplinary team is in place.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that a second drug treatment programme began at the health care unit in Mountjoy in March 2000. This offers a detoxification and intensive therapeutic counselling over 12 weeks to prisoners nearing release with a view to returning them drug free to a structured drug treatment programme in the community.
The Action Plan on Drug Misuse and Drug Treatment in the Prison System, which I approved last 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. The plan builds on a medical policy which has been agreed between my Department and the Eastern Health Board in that it seeks to provide the same access to treatment for prisoners as patients have within the community.
At my request, the Director General of the Prisons Service recently established a national steering group for prison based drug treatment services with a view to implementing the action plan. The steering group comprises representatives from this Department, the Eastern Health Board, senior prisons service management, Probation and Welfare Service, prisons psychology service and the prison education service. The group submitted their first report to me in July this year and the report was circulated to various organisations for views and feedback. The implementation of the recommendations contained in the report were approved, in principle, by the Government on 18 October 2000, on the basis that the precise staffing and other expenditure related proposals would be the subject of direct negotiations between the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children and Finance as well as the Prison Service and health boards. These are due to commence immediately.