Half of jail drug addicts drop out of rehab

Almost half of prisoners addicted to drugs fail to complete rehabilitation courses designed to help them kick the habit, the Home Office has admitted.

Almost half of prisoners addicted to drugs fail to complete rehabilitation courses designed to help them kick the habit, the Home Office has admitted.

The dropout rate emerged as Tony Blair and David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, prepared to launch an initiative today on tackling drugs.

Eight out of 10 arrivals at some inner-city jails have a serious drug habit and prisons are struggling to rehabilitate addicts already behind bars, Home Office figures indicate. Paul Goggins, a Home Office minister, said that of 4,703 inmates who started intensive drug treatment programmes in 2003-04, only 51 per cent finished them.

A Drugs Bill promised in the Queen's Speech gives police powers to perform drugs tests on criminal suspects upon arrest rather than charge; those who test positive could be required to undergo a drug treatment programme. But Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "If we can't organise effective drugs programmes with a captive audience, then it doesn't hold out much hope for running programmes outside prisons."

Enver Solomon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "There are serious limitations to what can be done in prisons. This raises questions over whether they should be providing drug treatment on the cheap."