Nearly half of voters back rehab over prison for drink and drug offenders.Voters back sending alcohol and drug addicts to rehabilitation centres rather than prison if they commit crimes, a poll has found.
Nearly half of British adults (47%) said they were in favour of enrolling offenders on programmes aimed at helping them to kick their habit rather than of putting them behind bars.
Only one in five (20%) of the public were opposed to the idea, according to the Opinium poll for the addiction charity Forward Trust.
When broken down by party, 56% of Labour, 61% of Liberal Democrat and 68% of Green supporters said they were likely to rehab over prison.
The findings come as the Labour Party conference in Liverpool is underway, and just days before the government is expected to release up to 700 inmates early to ease prison overcrowding...
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