Drug Interventions Programme

The Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) provides interventions for drug-misusing offenders throughout their criminal justice journey.

DIP grips people as early as possible in their contact with the criminal justice system, from initial drug testing and assessment in the custody suite, right through to post-release care and management in the community.

How does it work?

Across the criminal justice system, drug workers and police identify drug users, with particular emphasis on drug testing and intelligence-based targeting in police stations. They help drug-using offenders by challenging their criminal behaviour and brokering access to help with life skills, education and training, employment, drug treatment and housing.

The teams share intelligence with local partners who, collectively, take action where drug users don’t want to engage.

Does it work?

The statistics from 2009-10 show:

• 9,000 restrictions on bail were given making sure drug users attend treatment and recovery services before disposal
• 700 DIP conditional cautions diverted users away from court and into treatment and recovery
• 13,000 short-sentence prisoners were picked up on release and managed into recovery and rehabilitation

At point of identification, the average DIP client is 31 years old; male (83 per cent); and white-British (75 per cent).

Research showed that offenders identified through a drug test on arrest already had an average of 8.8 convictions. It also revealed that the overall volume of offending was lower (26 per cent) following identification through a positive DIP drug test. Around half the cohort showed a decline in offending of around 79 per cent in the following six months.

DIP is estimated to help prevent around 680,000 crimes per year (though this number may be smaller as some individuals would have sought treatment anyway).

DIP operates in every local area in England and Wales under local integrated offender management arrangements to tackle specified Class A drug-misusing offenders. Nationally during 2009-10, DIP helped to manage over 57,000 people into drug treatment and recovery services.

Drug Strategy: Reducing Supply, Managing Drug Misusing Offenders Bulletins.

The first in a series of bulletins has now been released to keep you informed of work related to the management of drug misusing offenders, in line with the Reducing Demand chapter of the drug strategy.