It is clear that the link between crime and drugs is well established. It has been estimated that up to 80 per cent of the crime committed in Dublin is drug related. Sadly, prison is the final destination for many drug addicts and dealers have seized on prisons as lucrative markets. The irony is that prisoners are a captive market.
Those of us familiar with the prison system and the inner city know that drugs are freely available in many prisons, enabling drug users to continue their habit and encouraging prisoners who had not previously taken drugs to start abusing them. Detoxifying prisoners is an inadequate response. Unless we establish an integrated and effective approach to the problem of drug abuse in prisons we may be confronted by calls for the segregation of drug dependent prisoners in order to safeguard the interests and welfare of non-drug using prisoners. I would hate to think we would have to go that route.
Prison is a microcosm of society, particularly of the more disadvantaged sectors. Heroin accounts for much of the drug abuse outside prison and it is fair to assume that it accounts for much of the drug abuse in prisons. We need to establish prison drug teams which will provide medical and psychiatric counselling as well as rehabilitative services. Methadone maintenance is widely recognised as the most effective means of breaking an addict's dependence on heroin. I was horrified to discover recently that there is no methadone maintenance programme in Mountjoy Prison for non-AIDS heroin addicts. There is a major heroin problem in Mountjoy Prison, which is the destination of many drug abusers who turn to crime to support their habits.
The Minister is aware that prison is not merely the ring fencing of offenders for a specific period of time. If prison is to serve any useful purpose offenders must be rehabilitated and that is where the prison services fall down. According to my most recent information there are 26 probation and welfare officers to serve 13 prisons. That represents two per prison. They are almost entirely occupied with the minutiae of prisoner discharge and their reintegration into the community. Yet, if we accept that crime is drug related it is surely inadequate to release a prisoner into the community without treating the habit which caused the person to offend in the first place. I urge the Departments of Justice and Health to establish methadone maintenance programmes in prisons and put mechanisms in place which will ensure that when prisoners are released they can be put on such programmes in the community.
Continuity in the treatment of drug abusers is of paramount importance, as are counselling and support services. The establishment of methadone maintenance programmes in prisons is a vital step towards breaking the vicious cycle of drug-related crime. As a Deputy who represents a constituency with a major drugs problem I appeal to the Minister to recognise that unless the destructive cycle is broken we will continue to witness the type of crime which is endemic in our towns and cities, as well as more violent crimes which are now commonly committed in Dublin and Cork.
