Recommendation 72

The Government acknowledges that helping people on probation face their addictions or mental health issues helps reduce crime. Damian Hinds MP told us that: “Drug addiction is the fuel, the driver, behind acquisitive crime and all manner of other crimes that come off the back of it and which drag young people and children into criminality”. 119 Dr Abramovaite concurred that “there is very strong evidence that substance misuse and mental health issues are big drivers for crime overall”. 120 She also told us about her evaluation of the New Chance scheme operating in the West Midlands: she found that, “after treatment, people who had mental health issues had a 37% lower reoffending rate than the control group”. She added that “among those who had substance misuse … the results were 55% lower”. 121 As Damian Hinds MP put it: “If you can resolve some of those issues, so much else follows in its wake.” 122