Trevor Sargent
Question:254 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice when the planned drug treatment unit adjacent to Mountjoy Prison will be opened; and the plans, if any, she has for improving conditions of detention there. [3916/96]
Written Answers. - Mountjoy Prison Matters.
Trevor Sargent
Question:255 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice the number of strip searches that have been conducted in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, since the introduction of the measure last year; and the evaluation, if any, that has been carried out on the effectiveness of this measure in stopping the entry of drugs into prisons. [3917/96]
Trevor Sargent
Question:256 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice the plans, if any, she has to make clean needles available to serious heroin addicts in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, as well as condoms to prisoners in general, to help reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS infection there. [3918/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 254, 255 and 256 together.
The drug treatment facility is scheduled to commence operations in April next at the Mountjoy Health Care Unit following the completion of extensive renovations necessitated by the fire at the unit last December. Regarding conditions generally at the prison, there is a comprehensive, ongoing programme of renovations under way. Searches are a standard procedure in respect of all prisoners entering and leaving the prisons.
Measures introduced by me last year to counter the smuggling of drugs into the prisons included an improvement in the procedures for searching with the addition of a special search room. These measures have proved very effective with a significant overall increase in the number of drug seizures. Where considered necessary, some searches involve the removal by the prisoner, in stages, of his/her clothes which are then searched for contraband and returned immediately to the prisoner.
The question of the provision of needle exchange programmes and condoms to prisoners was considered in detail by the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases in Prisons which reported in 1993. The committee — the majority of whose recommendations have now been implemented — concluded that such an approach would be inappropriate in a prison setting and I concur with that view.