Counselling, Assessment, Referral Advice, Throughcare (CARAT)

CARAT prison drug services are designed to identify people in the prison system who misuse drugs and take them through the treatment process from start to finish, including through release from prison and back into the community.

A CARAT service links:

Prisons with courts (for those on remand, providing information for bail applications and pre-sentence reports)
Different departments and units within individual prisons
Different establishments upon transfer between prisons (so that a drug worker can ensure continuity of work with drug problems earlier in a sentence)
Prisons with community agencies, to ensure that the service user has continuity of care on being released from prison. This stage can involve referral into a residential or community rehab programme

Prisoners can access support from CARAT services at several different points in the criminal justice system:

They can ask to see a drug worker at any point during remand or sentence
Through community agencies with whom the prisoner was previously in contact
Through helpline or family referral
During a health, risk or needs assessment on entering prison
On having a urine test positive for drugs (either voluntary or mandatory testing)
During sentence management interviews with officers
On assessment for temporary release, home detention curfews, discretionary conditional release or during other probation contact

Phoenix Futures runs CARAT services in the following prisons: HMP Acklington, HMP Bedford, HMP Blundeston, HMP Bulwood Hall, HMP Edmunds Hill, HMP Foston Hall, HMP Highpoint, HMP Hollesley Bay, HMP Holme House, HMP Kirklevington, HMP Leicester, HMP Lincoln, HMP Littlehey, HMP Morton Hall, HMP North Sea Camp, HMP Norwich, HMP Nottingham, HMP Ranby, HMP Stocken, HMP Sudbury, HMP The Mount, HMP Wayland, HMP Whitemoor, and HMPYOI Castington.

For further information on our CARAT services please email us