Having inmates taking part in community-based drug rehabilitation programmes does not effectively reduce the possibility of them relapsing, a new study has shown.
Published in the Malta Medical Journal and penned by Claire Axiak, the study aims to determine the efficacy, or otherwise, of the three drug rehabilitation programmes in place in reducing recidivism among Corradino Correctional Facility inmates who take drugs.
Drug abuse is a serious social problem, with 14 per cent of people aged between 18 and 24 being affected. Besides the well-known harmful effects on a person’s health and welfare, substance misuse has serious repercussions on society such as the strain on public finances spent on medical interventions, loss of production, social benefits and court proceedings. The argument for financing therapeutic community-based drug rehabilitation programmes for inmates is compelling because international research has shown that these have a positive effect on reducing recidivism, the study notes.
Therapeutic community-based programmes revolve around a radical change in the person’s lifestyle, including moderation, self-restraint, abstinence, removing anti-social behaviour and fostering pro-social values and conduct.
Recidivism was higher within the group that attended a programme than among those who never participated
Inmates convicted for drug-related offences who pass an assessment by the Prison Substance Abuse Assessment Board are allowed to attend a drug rehabilitation programme for the rest of their custodial sentence, which must not exceed two years.
The three programmes in place in Malta are the ‘New Hope’, run by the Caritas Malta Foundation (part funded by the government), the prison-based Substance Abuse Therapeutic Unit and Aġenzija Sedqa’s ‘Santa Marija’.
Surprisingly, the study found that recidivism was higher within the group that attended a programme (55.2 per cent) than among those who never participated in a programme (44.8 per cent).
The study also found that inmates whose primary drug of choice was heroin were more likely to relapse than those incarcerated for drug-related offences other than heroin.
While conceding the study’s limitations, in particular its modest sample size, the author notes that one could not exclude the fact that Malta’s prison inmate programmes offered are not accomplishing their intended objectives, at least in terms of ensuring that clients do not return to prison.
On the other hand, the study notes, lack of supervision, support and community aftercare post-release from the programmes might be cancelling out the possible benefits of the inmates’ participation in such initiatives.