You have to be kidding....

[JawD 31]

Six prisoners and former inmates who say they were forced to stop taking drugs by the "cold turkey" method are expected to get out-of-court payments.

 

The test case over claims human rights were breached and the practice amounted to assault is due to take place.

 

Some claimants were said to have been receiving alternative treatment before coming under the responsibility of the Prison Service in England and Wales.

 

Shadow home secretary David Davis said a "disastrous" precedent could be set.

 

A Home Office spokeswoman said it was inappropriate to comment on the case while the litigation was still ongoing.

 

'Sharp detoxification'

 

The High Court proceedings focused on six test cases chosen from a total pool of 198 claimants.

 

The claimants were bringing the action based on trespass, because they say they did not consent to the treatment, and for alleged clinical negligence.

 

Their barrister Richard Hermer told an earlier hearing in May: "Many of the prisoners were receiving methadone treatment before they entered prison and were upset at the short period of treatment using opiates they encountered in jail.

 

"Imposing the short, sharp detoxification is the issue."

 

Mr Davis said: "Presumably the Government does not want to be embarrassed by losing such a case under its own human rights legislation.

 

"Drugs are a scourge on society and completely undermine all our other efforts to fight crime. By doing this Mr Reid would be letting down the taxpayer, the victims of these offenders and the drug addicts themselves."

 

Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said the case could see courts "pause for thought" before using jail terms as a way of making sure an offender receives treatment.

 

"Our overcrowded jails are awash with petty, persistent offenders who commit crime to feed their drug habit," she said.

 

According to the editor of the Prisons Handbook, Mark Leech, two-thirds of crime is drug-related and Home Office research has shown that 643 drug addicts were responsible for well over 70,000 offences in one three-month period.

 

"Prisoners have the right to receive exactly the same type and standard of healthcare in prison as they would receive in the community," he said.

 

"Yet for the most part drug detoxification in prison is second-rate in standard and woefully short in its duration."

 

The charity Drugscope said the government had pledged £28m funding for a treatment programme for inmates this financial year but the budget was later reduced by 60%.

 

The Department of Health said it was spending £12m in the current financial year on the scheme and the level of funding would be maintained in 2007/08.

 

The programme, supplemented by the Home Office, aims to increase drug treatment for prisoners to allow them to fight their addiction before their release into the community, a spokeswoman said.

[Happy Face 29]

Isn't it a question of setting standards the same across the board? Some prisons have drug rehabilation schemes in place that minimise individual suffering. Others don't. Why should certain criminals get better treatment than others?