HMP Kilmarnock most successful Scottish prison in reducing substance addiction

HMP Kilmarnock, managed by Serco on behalf of the Scottish Prison Service, has achieved the best results of any of the 15 Scottish prisons in reducing substance abuse by prisoners.

Addiction Prevalence Testing (APT) data released this week on the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) website shows that HMP Kilmarnock achieved a reduction of substance abuse from 91% on prisoner admission to 12% on liberation. These scores compare with the overall performance across all Scottish prisons of 78% to 31%.

ScotPHO says that ‘APT was carried out across all prisons to evidence progress and towards the ‘reduced or stabilised substance misuse’ offender outcome.  Addiction testing of receptions and liberations was conducted in November 2017.

Michael Guy, Serco Contract Director at HMP Kilmarnock, said: ‘These results are down to the hard work and professionalism of everyone at the prison.  We have a multidisciplinary approach to ‘Prevent, Detect and Educate’ and it’s been very effective.’   

‘The prison’s intelligence unit works with Police Scotland to ‘Prevent and Detect’, disrupting the attempted smuggling of illegal substances, including drugs, into the prison.  This work also supports the routine and intelligence led searches in the prison.

‘NHS Scotland’s addictions team carry out great work to ‘Educate’ and support prisoners with substance misuse issues.’ 

In addition to its intelligence unit HMP Kilmarnock also has a number of dedicated dog handlers and trained drug dogs.

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