asked the Minister for Justice the plans he has to provide for the treatment of drug addicts who have been confined to prison.
Written Answers. - Treatment of Drug Addicts.
414.
Limerick East): It would be wrong to think that it is feasible for the prison medical officers or for prison personnel to provide elaborate therapy calculated to cure addicted prisoners of their addiction. Even if pressure on the accommodation in the closed prisons were not a problem, treatment techniques, which rely very largely on the commitment of the person concerned to overcome the addiction, cannot easily be applied in the prison setting. On the other hand, a proportion of the persons treated for drug addiction in the available clinics and centres, including Coolmine Lodge and its sister centre, St. Martha's, is, in fact, composed of persons released from the prisons temporarily for the purpose of receiving treatment.
Where, for one reason or another, a prisoner cannot be referred for treatment to one of the clinics or centres, the prison medical officer provides whatever help he can to enable the prisoner to cope with the enforced withdrawal from the use of the drug to which he had become addicted. In addition group therapy sessions are conducted in the prisons where practicable. In due course, the courts will be able to commit suitable offenders direct to a custodial treatment centre designated by the Minister for Health under section 28 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977, rather than to a prison.
A study entitled "Drug Abuse in the Dublin Committal Prisons" by officers of my Department, which was published in 1983, is available in the Library. It contains useful information on various aspects of the matter, including the problems connected with treatment.