S.A.T.U.

The Substance Abuse Therapeutic Unit is a Unit run by the Department of Correctional Services. This Unit caters for sentenced individuals with a documented history of substance abuse, who their own volition, request to undergo rehabilitation programme. Eligible individuals should be serving a sentence of more than six months and less than two years.

ELIGIBILITY

Inmates with a history of substance abuse who are eligible for prison leave under prison regulations and who are currently serving a sentence are offered the opportunity of applying to attend a rehabilitation programme. They are then processed by the Prisons Drug Programme Assessment Team (P.D.P.A.T.) prior to transfer to one of the three rehabilitation programmes available on the island.

IDEOLOGY

Based on the Stay IN Out Model as conceived by Wexler, De Leon and Jainchill, this Unit was further developed so that it currently falls under the Comprehensive Type of Therapeutic Intervention. This Unit has no underlying preponderant matrices. It hypothesises that drug addiction has a multi-casual aetiology, where every cause is interrelated with the others. Each cause has an equal amount of weight in predisposing the individual towards a dependent state. The Community, from this point of view, becomes a phase of a wider project ? that of empowering the individual by giving him the energy to understand what was the origin of his dependency and to overcome his situation.

STAFF

The Unit employs both custodial and therapeutic staff.

INSTRUMENTS USED

The Unit believes in the reality principle. With this in mind individual and group therapy are held, with the intention of studying and

resolving the individual?s problems, both on a personal as well as on a community level.

Meetings and encounters become an important part of the work methodology and for the development of community life. Work, study and community life, therefore, are of utmost importance.

MODEL

To provide concepts, emotions and experiences that will lead the individual to change, develop and mature while also offering support during moments of regression.

HISTORY

¨ In October 1995, the first inmates were admitted to Substance Abuse Assessment Unit ? S.A.A.U., which was situated in Paola. The aim of this Unit was to assess the extent of the inmates? substance abuse problems.

S.A.A.U. was situated in one of the divisions within the prison facility, even though direct access from one to the other was blocked. S.A.A.U. had a working optimum of ten residents.

¨ Due to the increasing need, a rehabilitation programme was developed and in August 1996, this Assessment Unit evolved into a Therapeutic Unit ? S.A.T.U., thus offering a fully fletched substance abuse rehabilitation programme.

¨ In March 1997, S.A.T.U. was transferred to Mtahleb, to more adequate quarters with extensive grounds and a lot of potential for development.

S.A.T.U. can presently host twenty residents, even though the working optimum of the Unit is sixteen. Various projects are now being developed with the aim of bettering both the rehabilitative aspect and the residents? re-insertion into society.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

¨ A Re-Entry Unit

¨ An Extension of the Present Building

¨ Integrated Vocational Training Programmes

¨ Community Programmes

¨ 5 year Follow-ups

¨ Projective Studies

¨ A Female? sister? Unit

¨ Protected Employment Schemes

¨ Research into trends in prison populations and implementation of appropriate long-term policies and harm minimisation initiatives.

¨ Overseas Training

¨ Primary and Secondary Prevention Educational Programmes

Address:

Substance Abuse Therapeutic Unit
Mtahleb, MALTA

Telephone Number: (00 356) 455535, 450269
Fax Number: (00 356) 451647