Select Committee on Home Affairs Written Evidence


19.  Memorandum submitted by the Ley Community

  The Ley Community provides a long and intensive residential rehabilitation programme for up to 58 entrenched addicts, many of whom have spent substantial periods of time in custody. It is not unusual for a Judge to indicate to an offender that he would be considering a prison term of over five years should the offender be breached for failure to keep to the conditions of residence and return to Court.

  The treatment programme lasts for twelve months and is very structured. Residents have little free time for themselves, and agree to a regime that seriously restricts their civil liberties: all phone calls are "covered", letters in and out are read by staff, and visits are only allowed after several months, and then supervised. Residents also have no access to money whilst in treatment, with their personal purchases managed through staff.

  Very high standards are demanded from residents. The local Environmental Health Officer has commented that the standard of cleanliness in the Community kitchens exceed any restaurant in the County. The programme is run as a Therapeutic Community whereby residents take responsibility for running the various departments in a large residential facility. Once they have settled into the regime, they have the opportunity to explore the reasons behind their addiction and offending behaviour. For many, this takes them to come to terms with early childhood trauma: physical, emotional and sexual abuse, abandonment and loss. The process requires residents to form strong relationships with each other, and hold each other to account.

  After eight to nine months in the programme, residents have become comfortable with themselves, and fairly institutionalised. They then move into the stage of the programme that prepares them to leave: undertaking voluntary work, socialising outside the Community in Oxford, and preparing for looking for full time employment. During the nine years that I have worked at the Ley Community, all but two residents who have completed the programme have obtained full time employment on the open job market. They are required to have worked for three months before they move on with their peers into rented accommodation in Oxford having saved for their deposit and a months rent in advance. The importance of full time work and no longer being dependent on State Benefits is crucial to ex-residents self-esteem.

  Around 40% of residents admitted to the programme complete their treatment and move on in employment. For a time last year, we were running well under full occupancy along with many of the other residential treatment facilities in the country. There would appear to be a serious lack of "joined up thinking" when there are places available for treatment unused when the prison population is apparently at crisis point. Unfortunately, the cost of paying for a prison bed comes from a different source to that which pays for residential treatment in the Community. Over the last few years, the Government has greatly increased the funding for drug treatment, but this has primarily been focused on community provision (structured day care and methadone prescribing). During 2006-07, I understand that there was a drop of nearly 10% in referrals into residential drug treatment with the result that some units were put at considerable risk, whilst others were forced to close.

  Highly structured residential drug treatment facilities are not an easy option to a custodial sentence. Many of the residents at the Ley Community state that prison is a much less demanding option that staying in treatment: indeed, some chose to leave knowing full well that they will be returning for a further lengthy prison sentence. At present, the National Treatment Agency, the Special Health Authority set up by the Government to oversee drug treatment, is undertaking a major exercise to ensure that all residential units meet defined quality standards. This is a welcome initiative, as Courts need to be confident that treatment programmes in each facility are robust and effective.

  The Ley Community receive many visitors each year, and the usual response is bewilderment as to why there are not more residential facilities like the Ley. In July 2006, we made a bid for capital money from the Government for residential and in-patient provision to set up a residential unit specifically for Priority and Prolific Offenders as a regional resource for the National Offender Management Service. We felt that such a resource would fit the regional strategic plan for dealing with offenders. Unfortunately, the timing was poor as the funding stream for NOMS has yet to be decided, and we were unable to progress the bid.

  I very much hope that members of the Home Affairs Committee will be able to visit the Ley Community as part of their inquiry. I have no doubt that treatment facilities such as the Ley Community have a potentially significant role in effective sentencing.

Paul Goodman

Chief Executive

28 February 2007





 
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