NZ government to improve prison\'s alcohol treatment programmes Information

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NZ government to improve prison's alcohol treatment programmes

The New Zealand government is to expand its drug and alcohol treatment provision in prisons, it has been revealed.

The move was announced by the outgoing corrections minister Damien O'Connor at the combined Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs and Cutting Edge addiction conference in Auckland, and is a response to figures which show that 89 per cent of serious criminals are under the influence of drugs or alcohol in the lead-up to their offence.

A new treatment facility was opened last month at Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt, with another due to be operational by July 2008 at the Spring Hill Prison in Waikato.

As a result, an additional 500 interned addicts will have treatment facilities available to them every year.

A pilot programme is also being set up which will allow health professionals to work at police stations in order to identity those offenders which have substance abuse problems so they can then be referred for treatment.

"Currently there is no national framework or standard for court-ordered AOD (alcohol and other drug) assessments, but work to develop this is nearly complete," Mr O'Connor told Stuff.co.uk.

Around 80 per cent of inmates have been found to have a substance abuse problem in the past, compared with just 13 per cent of the general population.

Article published on 07/11/2020 by PCUG Addiction Treatment