The governer of Perth Prison says he is building relationships with several agencies in a bid to try to prevent inmates on short-term sentences from Dundee re-offending.
Mike Inglis told The Courier he is to “focus” on aiming to provide help for “short-term” prisoners upon their release in terms of housing and employment, with 241 Dundee prisoners currently (as of Monday) serving sentences at Perth Prison.
He has held talks with the Tayside Alcohol and Drugs Partnership and is a member of the Dundee Community Safety Partnership and feels these are positive moves that might help some of the inmates reacquaint themselves with society upon release.
“My view is that we should be doing a lot more in terms of having a wider impact on things like housing and employment,” he said.
“We have around 70% of our prisoners here from the Tayside and Fife area and I feel we have to make a difference. This has been aimed at short-term inmates prior to their release. The first few days after release are the most important.”
Mr Inglis said some of his officers have been training under the Smart Recovery programme, which has been rolled out across the UK and has proved a success in Lothian and Borders.
The programme helps people to recover from their addictive behaviour.
“There are inmates in here who have drug or alcohol problems and the Smart Recovery programme helps with this. We need to work in partnership with agencies on this.”
“We need to know how the Dundee community view our programme engagement with their wider remit of delivering positive outcomes for all citizens of Dundee.”
He continued: “I am a member of Dundee Community Safety Partnership, of which my focus is Dundee offenders and their successful return to the community.
“The addictions side is dealt with through my membership of all three alcohol and drug partnerships in Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus.
“My focus is ensuring that our work is aligned to the positive work taking place in communities and ensuring we are adding value to each local authority’s Single Outcome Agreements.”
Mr Inglis said that, in terms of SMART recovery, Perth and Kinross and Angus alcohol and drug partnerships have agreed in principle to roll out over the coming year a “network of recovery meetings” to assist community individuals and those in custody with a vehicle for starting or continuing their “recovery journey”.
“This will involve training professional staff from statutory and third sector and training peer-led mentors,” he added.
“Dundee Alcohol and Drug Partnership are currently assessing the benefits of this approach. Within custody, offenders from all three local authorities will have access within the prison-led meetings.”