What happens when a drug addict is arrested by police? As part of Inside Justice Week, Claire Burbage hears the story of a former addict, from his arrest to his battle to get clean.

SITTING with the familiar swab firmly inserted in his mouth, James stares at the recognisable surroundings. The stark walls appear to close in on him as he breathes in the musty smell of the police station he has become all too accustomed with. The muffled tones of a police worker drift past him as she fiddles with the portable machine positioned on the table next to him. He doesn't need the machine to tell him. He knows. He knows the result will be positive. He knows he has been taking heroin.

With a sigh, James prepares himself for the journey ahead. But this time the journey will have a different ending. This is his last chance. A long cycle of drugs, crime, arrests, and trips to police stations across the county has taken its toll on James and he knows a prison cell is waiting. This is his last chance. He needs out.

Like so many drug addicts, James was stuck in a rut. He badly needed the drugs that had taken control of his body and he needed to commit crime to feed that habit. But he also needed help.

To coincide with the national Inside Justice Week, Cleveland Police invited The Northern Echo to go behind the scenes of the justice system to grasp an understanding of the journey a drug addict will go through from the moment they are arrested and tested positive for drugs.

It is a system involving a multitude of agencies, staff, and care workers, and not a system from the school of 'lock 'em up and throw away the key'. It is a system meticulously designed to help. And for people like James, it appears to work.

Three years ago, Cleveland Police introduced the mandatory drug test. Anyone over the age of 18 who has been arrested for what is known as a "trigger" offence - an offence believed to be related to substance misuse - has to take the swab test. It is an offence not to. The test involves inserting a swab - similar to a cotton bud, only slightly bigger - in the mouth for around ten minutes. Saliva collected from the swab is placed in a portable machine, which tests for two drugs - opiates, such as heroin, and cocaine.

Sitting in on the test will be a referral worker who assesses the person to spot for any signs of drug abuse. If the test is positive, the user will have to undergo a further assessment. A decision is then made whether or not to charge the person and bail them to the courts.

Several options are available to magistrates when dealing with addicts who are committing crimes to feed their habit. As a way to avoid prison, the courts may order that defendants comply with a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR). The requirement offers fast access to a drug treatment programme with the final goal of reducing drug related offending.

Offenders agree their treatment plan with the probation and treatment services. The plan will set out the level of treatment and testing and what is required at each stage of the order.

On Teesside, it is estimated one in three people will successfully complete a DRR and turn their life around. James, which is not his real name, was the one in three.

"I have been through the system. I have been addicted to heroin since 1998. I have been to the police station many a time," he says.

'In November I was given a DRR and I have just finished it. It has helped me no end. I am getting swabbed twice a week. I had to stay away from drugs otherwise the order would have been extended and I didn't want that.

"In January, I started a football course. I did a six week course with help through the DRR and a probation officer. I then did a three month course and I was involved with the drug team level one football coaching. After that I started playing football and I'm now coaching.

"All this is through the DRR."

Now aged 25, James started taking heroin when he was 18.

"There was just me and a group of friends who would hang about," he recalls. "We would do petty crime, like pinching cars. When I got addicted to heroin it had to be a bit more - I needed money to buy the drugs and started doing a lot more crime just to make money. I did burglaries - I've lost count of how many."

But the years took their toll on James and he knew he had once last chance to put things right. "I had been on drugs for years. I had been committing offences all the time. I was always in and out of the bobby shop, I would do just about anything to get drugs. I'd probably be in prison if I hadn't accepted the help.

"You have got to give and take if you want help, you have got to help yourself. A lot of people just turn up, get swabbed, and that is it. You have got to want help to get to where I am. It is not easy, but on the right treatment it is possible, but you've got to want to come off it on your own before you can do that.

"Drugs are still in the back of my head - especially when I see people around me still taking drugs. But I am not missing out on anything."

James tells his story enthusiastically and it is clear he is proud of what he has achieved and is looking towards the future.

Asked if someone had told him two years ago that he would be where he is now, would he have believed them?

He replies firmly: "No."

And what about now? Any regrets?

"I am ashamed - I am, a lot - but it is part of life," he says. "You learn by your mistakes. When I first got into it I didn't know the consequences, I thought I could just take the drugs, but it doesn't work like that.

"I got burgled last year and from doing it to getting burgled yourself you do realise the effect you have on other people."

James is one of the success stories. But there are still hundreds out there waiting to go through the system and waiting to start their own journey.

James' advice is simple: "I would just say take the help that is available to you. A lot of people on DRRs don't use it to their advantage.

"I am a lot happier. I never used to get on with my mam and now I do. I have managed to come out the other end."

Detective Inspector Kath Barber at Cleveland Police agrees and has seen the changes which have taken place in James as a result of the DRR.

"I can't emphasise enough what a life changing experience James has been through," she says. "Everything around his life was about taking drugs and committing crime and look at what he has become now. Yes, he had the support but it took an awful lot of strength to do that."