Public want prisoner early releases to be linked to clean drug test, finds poll

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood is facing pressure from the public to link early releases from prison to drug testing, a new poll suggests.

- DAVID MADDOX

Polling of 2,001 adults conducted by Opinion Matters reveals that 90 per cent think drug testing is important to the rehabilitation of prisoners, while 77.8 per cent support 24/7 drug monitoring in prisons.

Crucially, 40 per cent would be less concerned about early release if it was linked to drug testing with clean results. The government has faced criticism over the early release of thousands of prisoners in the past few weeks because of the overcrowded conditions they discovered when they took power from the Tories.

Many prisoners have been released after serving just 40 per cent of their sentences to make room in the prison system. To add to concerns, the capacity in yet-to-be opened prisons has been factored into future overcrowding modelling and still does not leave enough capacity in the system over the next five years.

It means that while the government is looking at a further prison-building programme, it is also looking at alternatives to sentencing, including home tariffs. But one of the biggest problems in prisons is drug addiction and smuggling. Now a new drugs patch, which can monitor prisoners 24/7, is being proposed to help solve the problem.