by Mary Graham

Concerns about the way a national drugs programme is being implemented at an open prison have been raised by a prison watchdog.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) inspected East Sutton Park Prison and have just published their report covering November 2008 to October 2009.

It questioned the way the Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS) is being implemented in the prison, which has space for 94 women and six young offenders.

IDTS is a national scheme aiming to wean prisoners with a drug dependency off drugs by using less harmful methadone or subutex.

But the IMB’s report went on: "The prison is virtually drug free and our understanding is that the women do not want the intervention, particularly those who have worked long and hard to address substance misuse problems.

"The board feels the programme is misguided in its aims to target every prison and that in the case of IDTS one size does not fit all."

Concerns were also raised that some women were only being sent to the prison for very short periods, such as two or three weeks before their release.

"Such a short period does not allow for resettlement work to take place, the practice is unnecessarily costly and serves no useful purpose," the board said.

The report did praise the achievements of the prison which offers places to women offenders who are coming towards the end of their sentences.

Women were given confidence by prison staff, the IMB said, and are "encouraged to face their problems and make their own efforts to turn their lives around."

Inspectors also praised efforts to build family ties through a series of courses for women such as cookery and planning healthy meals, praised as important in helping women adapt to life at home.

The report was written one month before Jane Andrews, former aide to the Duchess of York, who was sentenced to life for murder in 2001 after killing her boyfriend Tom Cressman, absconded from the prison in November. Andrews was later tracked down at a nearby hotel.