6 March 2003

Commenting on the Probation Inspectorate thematic report on Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“Instead of scrambling around trying to find money for new prisons, it makes sense for the Home Office to invest in getting more people off drugs and away from crime.

Sentencers must be fed up with sending people to overcrowded prisons only to see them back in court again a few weeks later on a new charge. Sensibly,the drug treatment and testing orders give magistrates and judges  the power to require offenders to get treatment in the community and to hold them to account. These orders are a great example of persistent sentencing which works to cut persistent offending.

If an offender manages to come off drugs and avoid offending again in the community, how much more chance there is of staying clean after a drug treatment and testing order than after the closed