The Czech Republic Annual Report 2010 Drug ... - Drogy-info.cz

more than 10 clients, etc. This is mainly due to the fact that the dedicated departments are a part of the standard
departments and, as such, they are managed by the Prison Term Manager, who is usually not a drug addiction
treatment professional. Even though the professional guarantor of the programme ensures the professional quality of
the programme and of the individual interventions, they do not have the required powers. There are also several
problems that are perceivable in terms of staffing by professionals with previous experience in drug addition
treatment. The first problem is the current overall personnel situation of the Prison Service (see above). In addition,
even if the position has been established and budgeted for, there is a problem staffing them with qualified persons,
and it is even harder to keep such staff because the working environment in prisons is rather specific. The solution to
this situation could be to reinforce the staffing of the specialised wings by qualified staff, establish an incentive
programme for them, assign additional competences to the professional guarantors of the therapeutic programmes,
and support a higher level of these centre’s independence of the standard course of imprisonment. Moreover, closer
cooperation with NGOs consisting in the more intensive involvement of the staff of the NGOs in the teams of the
specialised departments (joint meetings, joint supervision, etc.) could be helpful.
The regulations setting out the minimum standards for these centres and the operating manuals of the individual
programmes are some of the evaluation indicators of the quality and efficiency of the services provided by the
prison’s specialised departments. The fulfilment of these regulations is usually evaluated through regular meetings of
the therapeutic programme teams and through supervision of the programmes and teams, which is provided by
external supervisors. Finally, the methodological and auditing activities carried out by the General Directorate of the
Prison Service must also be mentioned.
Quality is a prerequisite of efficiency, but it is not the only prerequisite. Motivation and work by the client is another
precomdition. Thus, a change is the criterion of effectiveness, and the most obvious proof of effectiveness is that the
prisoners who have received the drug-related services do not return to drug use and crime after their release from
prison. However, there is still a lack of a representative evaluation study which would examine, for example, the
influence of undergoing a therapeutic programme on subsequent relapse into drug use or reoffending.
11.4.2 Training of the Staff Members of the Prison Service Providing Drug-Related Services
The qualification requirements regarding the staff members providing services to drug users are the following: a
psychotherapist must have completed an accredited self-experience training course in group psychotherapy, with
the length of the course being at least 500 lessons; a therapist (conducting mainly individual counselling, group
therapy, and counselling) must have completed at least 200 lessons of self-experience training. Moreover, the
qualification requirements for the employees providing drug-related services are adequately based on the List and
Definitions of Interventions in Drug-Related Services (Národní monitorovací středisko pro drogy a drogové závislosti,
2006). The training of the employees of the Prison Service is supported by the Training Institute of the Prison
Service, located in Stráž pod Ralskem. Each newly hired staff member must go through the induction training, which
is conducted at the person’s place of work; then they must receive follow-up induction training, which is conducted as
a basic training course at the Institute. There are currently six types of basic training courses. The professional
training of the employees providing drug-related services currently has the form of a range of separate courses, from
which the employees may choose or which are recommended to them by their supervisors, e.g. by the HR
department of the prison. The director of the Institute decides about the inclusion of an employee in the course. A
new system of training is currently being prepared for the employees providing drug-related services. There are
several pitfalls in the set-up of this training. Primarily, it is necessary to define clearly what a drug-related service (or
the performance of drug-related services) is because the line between specific drug-related services and other
interventions associated with the professional management of the prisoners is rather thin in practice. For this reason,
there is a lack of exact centralised statistics on the employees providing drug-related services and their qualifications.
The Training Institute of the Prison Service plans to perform an analysis of the situation described above in 2012.
The findings of the analysis will be used as the basis for the configuration of the systematic training of the employees
providing drug-related services.
11.5 Summary of the Main Issues in the Implementation of Drug Policy Measures in Prison
The individual issues are discussed in the relevant sections of this chapter, including the proposals for their
resolution; this section provides a brief summary of the issues.
The drug policy of the Prison Service is adversely affected by the extreme increase in the number of prisoners
and the concurrent decrease in the number of staff, payroll cuts, and general budget cuts of the Prison Service,
including cuts in the funds earmarked for the implementation of the drug policy. In consequence, it will be difficult
to maintain the current level of quality of the drug-related services.
The long-term absence of a representative epidemiological study aimed at the prevalence of drug use among
prisoners was finally rectified in 2010.
In addition to being used for treatment purposes, the information provided by the prisoner about drug use is also
used for enforcement purposes, which may be both demotivating for the prisoners and counterproductive for the
implementation of the drug policy, in particular as far as prevention and treatment are concerned.
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