UK Parliament Justice Committee Review of Drugs in Prison

The lived experience recommendations in the concluding chapter of the ‘Recovery Capital Pathways Through Prison’ book have been accepted as evidence in the UK Parliament Justice Committee Review of Drugs in Prison.

You can read their recommendations here and then click on the University of Derby submission (published on 13th February 2025), where Dr David Patton works as an Associate Professor.

The book asked each of the thirteen authors to provide recommendations for change to help recovery flourish within prisons. Their lived experience insights of being in prison whilst in an addiction or recovery pathway are powerful and vital to the future policy directions of UK prisons.

Justice Committee Chair Andy Slaughter MP said: “The Committee will analyse the factors driving demand, the use of technology including drones and mobile phones in facilitating activity and look at how current measures to tackle drugs in prisons, including drug treatment, could be improved. At a time of acute pressure across the whole of the prison estate, it is vital that effective solutions are found to reduce the many harms caused by drugs.”