Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 December 2004
42 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will introduce a pilot needle exchange in prisons here in view of the conclusions of the study, Prison Needle Exchange: Lessons from a Comprehensive Review of International Evidence and Experience. [32573/04]
View answerIt is the practice of the Irish Prison Service, IPS, in common with most prison systems worldwide, not to issue needles or injecting equipment to prisoners. There are good health, safety and security reasons for not providing needle exchange programmes in prisons and to do so would be inconsistent with the commitments set out in the programme for Government. Emphasis within prisons is on health education and, where appropriate, substitution treatment. Prisoner health education not only discourages injecting behaviour but also points out the health benefits of not sharing needles and injecting equipment.
Introducing a needle exchange scheme would act as a clear message that the use of intravenous drugs in prisons is tolerated. For many prisoners, imprisonment offers them an opportunity to examine their problems and, with the support of prison services, to try and address them. By facilitating rather than challenging drug abuse, the Irish Prison Service would be consciously releasing prisoners back into society as full blown addicts with a habit only capable of being fed by the commission of further serious crime or even degrading acts of prostitution.
Needle exchange schemes would subvert and run contrary to increasing staff vigilance in searching for drugs and preventing them being smuggled into prisons. Drug control in prisons would be reduced to a game in which a blind eye approach to successful breaches of the controls would, in time, become the order of the day. As a criminal justice agency, the Irish Prison Service is actively working to prevent breaches of the criminal law relating to illicit drugs. It is simply not possible to have staff fully committed to preventing the possession and distribution of illicit drugs within prisons while simultaneously distributing syringes to prisoners to be used to inject illicit drugs. The Irish Prison Service is committed to the twin strategies of supply and demand reduction to deal with the issue of drugs in prison — closing off routes of supply and providing support to prisoners to tackle their addictions. The introduction of needle exchange would run contrary to these approaches.
The report of the group to review the structure and organisation of prison health care services considered the matter of developing a syringe exchange programme within Irish prisons and came to the conclusion that such a step could not be recommended. Furthermore, the programme for Government states: "we will publish a plan to completely end all heroin use in Irish prisons". This will include the availability of treatment and rehabilitation for all who need them and the introduction of mandatory drug testing for prisoners where necessary.
My Department, in conjunction with the Irish Prison Service, has been working hard to implement the Government's response, as stated in the programme for Government, to deal with this serious issue and we will, early in the coming year, implement our new strategy of mandatory drug testing, addiction counselling and treatment and increase measures to prevent drug usage and to provide a more complete system of rehabilitation.
