London Drug and Alcohol Network Criminal justice system and resettlement 16 December 2010

 Latest stats on those in prison  What the pathway looks like for:  Those who are homeless  Those with substance misuse issues  Barriers to these pathways  What are community sentences?  Good practice in resettlement Outline

 64% using drugs before custody  44% assessed as drinkers  Drugs 48% prison, 32% probation  Alcohol 19% prison, 32% probation  74% of women had drug problem  12% mental illness/depression  20% emotional/m. health problem Latest stats

 Adults remand local prison, little help  Young people, remand centre, ditto  Adults sentenced sent to local prison  Longer-term prisoners moved on  Young people sent to YOI or secure estate Pathway

 Induction – 2 hours to several weeks  Address outstanding outside problems  Accommodation protection schemes  Some tenancies closed down in return for promise of rehousing Those who are homeless

 Picked up on arrival or MDT  Limit to what local prisons can do  More opportunities in training prisons  Problem is many substance misusers serve short sentences  CARAT teams run alongside other substance misuse services Those with substance misuse: 1

 For those wanting to come off drugs, there are drug-free wings, therapy regimes, acupuncture, special gym  Have seen prisoners physically rebuilt  But variations in service and drug misuse in prison: 19% of prisoners used heroin for first time inside Those with substance misuse: 2

 Physical + mental state of prisoners: drug users have multiple problems  Prison environment: those on remand may not get help at all  3 months min; 12 months plus max  But prisoners need to be highly motivated to overcome challenges 1: Barriers to these pathways

 Concentrated support different to environment they return to, either in prison or on release; liable to relapse  Stripped of drug-using friendship groups interest of treatment staff, they have nothing to fall back on  Decreased tolerance to drugs 2: Barriers to these pathways

 Lack of continuity between treatment in prisons and community:  Poor funding streams  The wrong sort of help on release: people need therapeutic and social support on release, not medical interventions 3: Barriers to these pathways

Poor resettlement provision in general:  Accommodation: 20% lose contact with families; third homeless prior to imprisonment; third lose their homes  Green Paper: 15% were homeless or insecure housing; 9% sleeping rough  37% of prisoners need help in finding a place to live 4 Barriers to these pathways

 Homeless statistics made simple:  70% don’t have housing issues at all  Of remaining 30%, third go to family + friends, third to private-rented sector  It’s remaining 10% that are problem  Local authority/housing associations, hostels/supported housing will not take them 5 Barriers to these pathways

 Work: employers don’t want to know them and they’re not job ready  SEU: 66% unemployed prior to prison 13% national rate; two-thirds rarely had stable employment; many never worked  Two-thirds lose their jobs; 80% writing skills, 65% numeracy skills, 50% reading skills at or below 11-year old 6: Barriers to these pathways

 Skills required for 96% of jobs  Basic skills level and unemployment rate for years significantly worse  Green Paper: almost half (47%) of prisoners had no qualifications, and 13% never had a paid job 7: Barriers to these pathways

 Benefits: it takes weeks; SEU 72% were in receipt prior to prison, 5 times general rate, 48% history of debt, ditto  Unstructured time: don’t even have the structure provided by the prison day and plenty of time to worry about future  No support; turn to drug-using friends 8: Barriers to these pathways

 Mid-range sentence of the court  Sentencing tariff under 1991 CJA  Community order: courts can add additional requirements including ATR and DRR, which replaced DTTO  Don’t know how they work in addressing housing/complex issues What are community sentences?

 Best examples are ‘Through the Gate’ schemes run by St Giles Trust et al  Nacro runs Milestone’s Project and until recently Pyramid Project  Green Paper proposing drug recovery wings; intensive treatment options in community; and replicating network of community projects for women Good practice in resettlement

DS Austerity League Gameweek 17 Ambridge Adventurers 32 Barrett’s All Sorts 52 Any questions?