The Netherlands Drug Situation 2010 - Trimbos-instituut

It is important that detainees are placed in a prison in their own region. The communication between penitentiary institutions and municipalities and the exchangeand quality of information needs improvement. Privacy of information plays arole here. There are lots of innovations and changes going on in the penitentiary system at thesame time; this hampers the implementation. Also, there should be more capacity tostart the aftercare in time and clearance of instructions for the special personnel isnecessary. Especially with regards to drug-addicted ex-detainees there is a problem with housing:corporations are not willing to rent houses to this specific target group. Another problem is the lack of care facilities for detainees with both addiction andpsychiatric problems (Van Duijvenbooden et al. 2010).The programme is still running. Pilots have been set up in 2010 as well as a monitor. Nodata are available yet.ConclusionReferral to care programs as an alternative for imprisonment is stimulated and the numberof referrals is rising. Care is now bought by the ministry of Security and Justice. Primarytarget group are addicts with triple problems. Addiction probation services have anincreasing number of clients. Over 1,800 prolific offenders, the majority of whom have adrug problem, were convicted to the measure of placement in a penal institution for prolificoffenders. The number of convictions to this measure has been decreasing and themajority participates in care programmes outside prison or in behavioural interventionsinside prison. The long period of imprisonment under this measure results in a substantialdecrease in offences by prolific offenders.9.4 Drug use and problem drug use in prisonKepper et al. investigated the use of substances among male adolescents in juvenile justiceinstitutions in the Netherlands (Kepper et al. 2009, table 9.4.1). Mean age of respondentswas 17.6 years, 38% was in pre-trial arrest for five weeks or longer, 7% wasconvicted to imprisonment and 55% was convicted to the measure of placement in a juvenilejustice institution with compulsory treatment. Questionnaires on substance usewere filled out by 155 boys (out of n=522; 30% response) who were placed in 10 (out of12) institutions between March and July 2009. The self-report questionnaires were filledout by the respondent under supervision of an interviewer/researcher. The questionsconcerned use prior to the incarceration and use since their stay in the institution. Prevalencerates of drug use were compared with those of same age males from regular secondaryeducation. Prior to their detention or pre-trial arrest, the incarcerated boys had a high level ofalcohol and drug use. In the age of 13 and 14 years, for example, more than half of the incarcerated boyshad used cannabis in the past month, compared to only 5% of the boys in regulareducation. They also smoked more joints per occasion. Especially in this youngest agecategory the differences in substance use compared to boys that attend regular educationwere large. The incarcerated boys had also used other drugs more often, like ecstasy, cocaine,crack cocaine, amphetamine, hallucinogens, GHB, LSD, and heroin. From these boys20% had used one of these drugs at least once, compared to only 4% among thepeer group following regular education.140