Drugs hell

But she fears she could easily fall back into a vicious circle of substance abuse, which she says has happened to too many other people.

Miaya, who is originally from Wroughton, left prison on Monday after serving three months of a six-month term for shoplifting and thieving. The 25-year-old mother-of-two is worried about her future.

She believes too many young people leave prison with no accommodation, and are forced to sleep rough, where they are more likely to get involved with hard drugs again.

Miaya is currently homeless, and is staying at a friend's house, although Swindon Council has promised to find her emergency accommodation.

She said: "There is not enough support in Swindon for people in my situation. There should be a special centre so that people coming out of prison have somewhere to go, and do not end up back on the streets.

"Hopefully, the council will find me accommodation, but if it doesn't, then I will be living rough, and I will probably end up on drugs again."

Although Miaya beat her addiction while in prison, she knows she could easily relapse.

She said: "While I was in prison I was treated with medication to beat the physical side of the addiction.

"But I did not get counselling and all I thought about inside was drugs.

"I am not getting any support at the moment from any agencies, and I can't get a doctor because I am homeless. I feel paranoid and anxious all the time, it is mental torture.

"The fact is that I do not feel my normal self without heroin. I just can't cope with life."

Miaya started smoking heroin four years ago after being offered it by a friend.

She had her own flat in Wroughton, where she lived with her boyfriend and baby daughter.

Within a year she started injecting the drug, and her life entered a downward spiral. Her heroin use was supplemented by crack cocaine, and she started shoplifting to fund her worsening habit.

She needed around £75 every day to buy drugs, and generated the cash by shoplifting.

She soon got caught up in the criminal justice system, and as well as serving her most recent jail term, she spent one month in jail in May 2002 for theft and shoplifting.

Miaya ended up living rough in Swindon with her brother, Adrian, 28.

She no longer has custody of her two children.

She said: "Losing my children was like having my heart ripped out.

"I started using heroin because it made me more confident.

"But if I knew then what I know now I would never have touched it."

Christina Snell, assistant chief probation officer for the Probation Service in Wiltshire, agreed that more needed to be done for former addicts leaving prison.

She said: "Anyone over 21 who is sentenced to under 12 months in prison comes out without any statutory support at all.

"The new criminal justice bill which is going through Parliament is designed to tackle the problem."

David Cork, manager of Druglink based in Old Town, said the organisation did provide a service for people in Miaya's position.

He said: "There is a lot of evidence that people coming out of prison like this do not have ready access to accommodation, and are at risk of relapse.

"We do, however, offer a prison resettlement programme, with counselling, and can refer people with housing problems to the council."

A spokesman for Swindon Council said it would provide emergency accommodation in a bed and breakfast or a hostel until permanent housing was found for Miaya.

Miaya gave her backing to the Swindon Drugs Hotline, launched by the Evening Advertiser and the police in June.

She said: "We need to do all we can to stop this, but there also needs to be better support for addicts when they come out of prison, or they will simply start offending again."

Since it was launched, the hotline has received information from nearly 100 people.

Information from the hotline played a vital role in helping the police plan raids on 19 addresses in Swindon earlier this month, which resulted in 16 arrests.