The controversial treatment is being carried out at HMP Whatton in Nottingham, a category C prison which holds male prisoners.
Chemical castration is achieved through taking hormone suppressants to lower testosterone levels, which can lead to a decreased sex drive.
The programme is run by the Prison Service and the Department of Health and has been co-ordinated by forensic psychiatrist Professor Donald Grubin.
"I have referred around 100 people for treatment. It is still ongoing but I do not have anything to do with the treatment," Prof Grubin told The Mirror.
"They come to me in the first instance to see whether the treatment is appropriate for them."
The professor said evidence from similar schemes in Sweden and Denmark suggests chemical castration can cut the rates of reoffending from 40% to 5%.
But Frances Cook from the Howard League for Penal Reform said: "Sex offending is often not about sex at all, but about violence and domination. The drugs used will not affect those attitudes."
Speaking to Sky News about the pilot scheme, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We continue to support the use of pharmaceutical interventions for some high-risk sex offenders given the evidence that medication can be useful in reducing risk for some perpetrators of these crimes.
"Medication can be used in conjunction with other approaches to managing the risk of sexual offending, such as Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements and accredited sex offender treatment programmes.
"We are looking at the best ways to deliver this service, which is why we are carrying out pilot schemes at HMP Whatton and in the East Midlands probation region."
Surgical castration is still allowed in a few European countries like Germany and chemical castration is mandatory for child sex offenders in Poland, Russia and in some US states.
No comments:
Post a Comment