York university's study into drugs work at prisons

York university's study into drugs work at prisons

8:56am Thursday 21st February 2013 in Education news

New research led by the University of York will examine the success of work being done in a number of prisons to help prisoners recover from drug dependency.

Drug recovery wings have been established in 11 prisons in England and Wales, including Askham Grange, near York, as dedicated areas designed to help prisoners give up their use of substances and prepare for social reintegration on release.

The three-year study, which will include interviews with staff and prisoners, aims to assess what impact the wings have on prisoners drug or alcohol dependency and their impact on their re-offending.

It will identify which wings are most successful and focus on therapeutic programmes and interventions which work best. Researchers will also collect information on the impact on prisons of having a wing focused on abstinence and recovery from drug and alcohol problems.

The work is being done by researchers in the universitys Department of Health Sciences, in partnership with Centre for Drug Misuse Research in Glasgow and the University of Cambridge.

Principal investigator Charlie Lloyd said: This important evaluation will compare the different approaches taken in selected prisons in order to find out which models appear to work best.

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York university's study into drugs work at prisons