Pubdate: Tue, 15 May 2001 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5 Author: Bill Birnbauer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?132 (Heroin Overdose) AFTER RELEASE, TOUGH FREEDOM On his release from the Fulham Correctional Centre in Sale, Andrew Charles - a long-term heroin user with a mental illness - was driven to the railway station by a corrections officer. Charles seemed stressed. "He appeared very confused and uncertain of his future," the corrections officer, Andrew Kingscott, later recalled. Three days before being paroled, Charles had refused a urine test, raising concern among prison staff that he may have taken drugs while he was away for medical treatment. Boarding the train to Melbourne that afternoon in February, 1999, Charles told Kingscott he would not be going back on heroin. At 11.30am the next day, a passer-by found a body in a Springvale park. Next to it in a plastic bag were some belongings and drug equipment. Andrew Charles was dead from heroin toxicity. He was 24. His father, Bill, says he was not told his son was being released from prison. His son was given some money and told to report to a community corrections service in Box Hill a few days later. That's all. The time immediately after release from custody is the most dangerous for drug users. Their tolerance to heroin is low, and often they are looking for a hit. "One hit, bang and you're dead. It's as quick as that," says David Murray of the Youth Substance Abuse Service. Compounding their problems is an acute shortage of emergency housing, a maze of forms to be filled in for welfare benefits, a lack of money, family or friends, and the lure of heroin. Some young offenders have been state wards or under protective orders and have few possessions. "They haven't collected anything; their history is left behind," says Vaughan Winther, a post-release coordinator with the Brosnan Centre. Some deliberately breach parole to get back inside. "The most comfortable environment they have been in is at Malmsbury (Juvenile Justice Centre)", according to youth worker Sarah Covill. Death rates, due mainly to drugs but also suicides and accidents, for ex-prisoners are alarming - up to 40 times that of the general community for females coming out of juvenile centres. "It's the highest risk group, bar none," Murray says of young drug users released from custody. Despite the death rates, the emphasis in Victoria and other states has been on deaths in custody. "Concern about the high death rate within Australian prisons over the last decade has led to a large amount of effort to prevent deaths in custody, however Victorian programs aimed at preventing post-prison deaths are only in their infancy," says a recent study prepared for the Office of the Correctional Services Commissioner and the State Coroner's Office. The study of 820 deaths of men and women released from adult prisons between 1990 and 2000 found the rate of unnatural death among ex-prisoners was double the rate of those dying in custody. Another report, by the Adolescent Forensic Health Service, found that 96 young people had died since being released from juvenile justice centres in Victoria between 1988 and 1999. Its author, Dr Friederike Veit, says: "We were saddened but not surprised by the results. We all know only too well that many deaths are occurring out there." Jacinta Heffey, the coroner who examined Andrew Charles' death, found he had been released from prison with little consideration of his support structures. "An examination of his record would have disclosed a disturbed, homeless young man who was attempting to resolve his drug and psychological problems. However he was driven to a country railway station and left to fend for himself," she said. "Evidence of the conversation with a correctional officer during the drive from the prison to the station discloses a lost young man in need of support and help from the system. However, there is no indication of any pre-release plan dealing with his accommodation, health or family issues and potential employment." Similar problems exist when youths are let out of juvenile justice centres. Grass-roots welfare services do not have the resources to see everyone who needs help. The Inside Out Project operates from an old church building in Collingwood. Its seven staff work long and irregular hours with more than 110 males aged between 15 and 17. The program gets $210,000 a year from the Department of Human Services. An extra $130,000 is provided to find accommodation for males whose lives are marred by abuse, drugs, mental illness, criminal behavior and suicide attempts. The Next Step project, run by Youth for Christ, gets about $200,000 to provide services for 12 to 20-year-old females and 10 to 14-year-old males released from Parkville Youth Residential Centre. The Brosnan Centre in Brunswick cares for offenders aged between 17 and 25 released from youth centres and adult prisons. The Department of Human Services provides $295,000 for its juvenile justice advocacy program. All three services say they can't meet the demand with their current budgets. Aaron almost ended up like Andrew Charles. He left home when he was 11 after "getting out of control a bit" and found himself under state care and living with older males. He began using drugs because "that's all there was around". Car theft, assault and other theft charges followed. While serving 12 months in Turana, now the Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre, Aaron noticed Inside Out's youth worker, Wayne Clarke. They talked, and trust eventually blossomed. When he was released, Inside Out found Aaron accommodation with a family and he began work. Two months later Aaron hit the wall. He was depressed and felt alone. He had to front court after getting drunk and stealing a car. He used heroin. He wanted to end it all. "Wayne found me and I was off my head, using heroin again. Wayne just had a talk: I can either take one road or keep moving on. He gave me encouragement to succeed. He showed me more about life and what I could actually achieve by myself." That was two years ago. Since then, Aaron has re-established a relationship with his mother and has resumed working. Clarke says Aaron has a long way to go. Accommodation is a big problem. State Government funding for Inside Out's accommodation placement service cuts out at 19, and Aaron has to live in a boarding house. Inside Out manager Andrew Dodds says the demand for service exceeds what it can provide. The intensity of the support required by young men was huge. "The kids who go into youth training centres have very disrupted lives. Poor education, truancy, family breakdown, history of substance abuse. They're not the kids from Hawthorn." Drugs, particularly heroin, have had an enormous impact on prison populations in recent years. Even though Victoria has a policy of diverting young offenders rather than imprisoning them, the numbers in custody have risen sharply. In 1999 75 per cent of young male offenders in Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre reported heroin use, and for young women in custody the figure was 85 per cent. Agencies that work with young and adult ex-prisoners, as well as others that provide programs for drug users and see ex-offenders not only want more resources, but new models of care that do not rely on the criminal justice system. The director of Jesuit Social Services, Peter Norden, says there needs to be a recognition that people take drugs because they are in pain and isolated, rather than simply on a self-destructive bent. "I think if you're going to grab people, take them out of the community for six months or six years, you'd better do something useful," he says. " ... most of what we are doing is cutting the ties, making the person feel less able to be a participant in the community and physically putting them more at risk of dying of an overdose when they get back. They get back and no one wants to know them or they don't belong or their ties with family are even weaker. That's why people overdose or take their own lives." Bernadette Walsh manages Connexions, an innovative program that works with young people who use drugs and have mental health problems. The large number of drug-related deaths are unacceptable, she says. "They are valuable young lives. People tend to disassociate themselves from young people like this and think they're just junkies or drug addicts and are not valuable. But they are. They are valuable human lives that deserve dignity and support." Andrew Charles are his first and middle names. His parents requested their surname not be used. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe