Row over acupuncture for prisoners

Debbie Andalo
Guardian Unlimited
June 02, 2005

The Home Office has responded to criticism over prison inmates who are being offered acupuncture on the NHS in order to relieve stress.

Prisoners at Bristol prison are referred for acupuncture sessions at their health centre as part of their access to NHS primary care services.

But a victim support group was reported this morning as describing the sessions as a "luxury" and said it illustrated the "huge disparity" between the way prisoners and victims of crime are treated in the UK. Acupuncture specialist and director of the centre for complimentary therapy and integrated medicine in Southampton, George Lewith, said that acupuncture can help to alleviate depression, anxiety and insomnia although the evidence was limited because little research had been carried out.

Dr Lewith, who has been practising acupuncture for nearly 30 years, said: "There is lots of circumstantial evidence that acupuncture should help with anxiety because it triggers the release of calming transmitters which are like opiates.

"I don't see any reason why these prisoners can't be offered acupuncture as it is available on the NHS - particularly for patients who need physiotherapy and pain relief." The Home Office said that since 1999 doctors working within prison health services were entitled to refer patients for complementary or alternative therapies if the money was available and the treatment was appropriate. Therapies on offer include yoga, meditation and osteopathy as well as acupuncture.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Holistic therapies are being used successfully in a number of prisons across the UK to tackle health issues such as self harm and drug addiction, as well as anger management, as and when appropriate.

"They are unlikely to be available to all prisoners. Prisoners most likely to benefit from holistic alternative therapies might include those at risk of self harm, those with mental health problems and those withdrawing from drugs." A spokesman for the charity Victim Support said that some victims of crime might be outraged that money was being spent on offering acupuncture services to inmates.

He said: "Others may say that they see some sense in it. Although this is something which might raise eyebrows, it is an issue which needs to be looked at."

But earlier today the director of another victim support charity, Norman Brennan, told the Daily Mail: "The amount of money spent on victims of crime is pitiful, yet prisoners are given luxuries which may people cannot afford.

"There is a huge disparity between how well we look after criminals and how well we look after those whose lives they destroy."