Prisoners will get access to pool tables if they agree to undergo regular drug testing to stay clean under new plan
- Prisoners will be granted privileges if they agree to undergo regular drug testing
- Dominic Raab says tackling substance abuse in jails is ‘mission critical’ priority
- He has pledged rise in recovery wings where offenders can access counselling
- Incentives include access to TVs, better kitchen facilities and gyms
Prisoners will be treated to pool tables and other privileges if they go on drug-free wings and agree to regular testing, the Justice Secretary has announced.
Dominic Raab said tackling substance abuse in jails was one of his ‘mission critical’ priorities.
He has pledged a major expansion of recovery wings, where offenders can access counselling to help them beat addictions.
Mr Raab told The Daily Telegraph he wants ‘as many incentives [to quit] as we can’, including access to TVs, better kitchen facilities, gyms and ‘almost certainly’ the right to work.
He aims to promote recovery for addicted criminals rather than giving out the heroin substitute methadone, which left prisoners in a ‘zombie comatose’ where they were unable to complete work.
He told the newspaper: ‘All of these things are linked.
Prisoners will be granted privileges such as access to TVs, better kitchen facilities and gyms if they agree to undergo regular drug testing. Pictured: Shepton Mallett Prison in Somerset
‘You are not going to get offenders doing courses or into work if they have got high-level dependency and addictions and methadone is highly, highly addictive.’
A special mail-order version of the Argos catalogue was launched last year which lets prisoners buy musical instruments to play in their cells.
Options available via the catalogue published in the prisoners’ newspaper Inside Time is a £75 electronic drum kit, a Cassio keyboard at £85 and an acoustic guitar for £80.
Advertisement
