SmartJustice on Drugs, Drink and Mental Health

Prison isn’t a hospital or a health centre; it’s a punishment of last resort. So why spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money locking up non-violent offenders who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs and drink, when we could cut crime by investing in punishment and treatment they need in the community instead?

SmartJustice on drugs, drink and mental health reveals the links between drugs, drink, mental health and crime and campaigns for more community solutions.

Almost two thirds of people entering prison test positive for class A drugs and 45% of shoplifters regularly take heroin or crack.. Alcohol related crime costs the UK £7.3 billion per year in terms of policing, prevention services, processing offenders through the criminal justice system and human costs incurred by the victims of crime. Around 70% of people in prison suffer from two or more mental health disorders. According to the Department of Health around 5,000 prisoners at any time have severe and enduring mental illnesses.

Offending to feed a drug habit, crime driven by binge drinking or through mental illness affects communities so we need interventions that change behaviour.

We believe that investing in treatment and support for people with drug, drink and mental health problems before they commit crime, or as a key part of a community punishment order for non- violent offenders, is far more effective than just locking them up.

This is what we want the government to do:

Drugs

Ensure immediate access to drug treatment at an early stage especially for young people.

Provide more community treatment programmes for addicts who offend such as residential rehabilitation & substitute opiate prescribing programmes.

Use community punishments with drug treatment requirements and set up more dedicated drug courts.

Combine all community drug treatment with access to training, employment, accommodation and help with alcohol/mental health problems.

Drink

Improve alcohol treatment services especially for young people.

Extend arrest referral schemes where an offender whose crime has involved hazardous drinking is referred to treatment services by the police on arrest.

Provide more community punishments that include an alcohol treatment requirement.

Mental Health

Invest in accessible mental health services, including specialist outreach services especially for children and young people.

Ensure more psychiatric services are available at police stations to assess offenders with mental health problems.

Provide a network of court diversion schemes for non violent offenders with the treatment they need.

Improve services for those with both mental health problems and addictions.



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