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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 12 Apr 2001

Vol. 534 No. 5

Written Answers - Drugs In Prisons.

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

27 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the measures that have been introduced to prevent the use of illegal drugs in Mountjoy Prison; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10853/01]

It is the firm policy of both my Department and the Prison Service to take all possible measures, short of the kind of searches that would be considered abusive, to prevent drugs getting into prisons. This approach is followed in Mountjoy Prison and all the other constituent facilities in the Irish Prison Service. Habitual drug abusers are of course more numerous in the committal institutions in the Dublin area which have large daily committals of prisoners, many of whom have backgrounds of years of drug abuse which they actively seek to maintain while in custody. Considerable ingenuity and guile is practised by some of these prisoners and their suppliers in this respect. The Prison Service is resolutely committed to tackling drug abuse in a comprehensive way and has my full support. This involves a twin track approach of supply and demand reduction.

A number of technical and policy measures have been introduced in recent years to curtail the smuggling and use of illegal drugs in the prison system. These include sophisticated video surveillance, improved visiting and searching facilities, including facilities for strip searching prisoners, increased vigilance by staff and urine testing. Where visitors are found attempting to supply drugs to inmates, gardaí are called to the prison with a view to prosecuting the persons concerned. A number of prosecutions in this area take place every year and persons have served prison sentences in this respect. Efforts to eliminate the supply of drugs coming into our prisons are not enough on their own. The Prison Service will continue to seek to reduce demand for drugs within the prison system by the education, treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicted offenders. The action plan on drug misuse and drug treatment in the prison system, which I approved in 1999, provides a detailed strategy to raise the level of treatment for drug addicted offenders. This includes the expansion of detoxification facilities, more drug free areas and the provision of methadone maintenance. The provision of addiction counselling support services is central to the plan. The plan builds on a medical policy which has been agreed between my Department and the then Eastern Health Board in that it seeks to provide the same access to treatment for prisoners as patients have within the community.
At my request the Director General of the Prisons Service established a national steering group for prison based drug treatment services with a view to implementing the action plan. The steering group comprises representatives from this Department, the Eastern Regional Health Authority, senior Prison Service management, probation and welfare service, prisons psychology service and the prison education service. The group submitted its first report to me in July 2000, and the report was circulated to various organisations for views and feedback. The implementation of the recommendations contained in the report were approved, in principle, by the Government on 18 October 2000, on the basis that the precise staffing and other expenditure related proposals would be the subject of direct negotiations between the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children and Finance as well as the Prisons Service and health boards. I understand that the position of Co-ordinator of Drug Treatment Services (Prisons), identified in the steering group, has been advertised by the Eastern Regional Health Authority and that discussions will begin in the near future with the Department of Finance with a view to filling the other posts proposed.
In the meantime, the introduction of methadone maintenance as a harm reduction strategy for drug addicts into the prison system has been a key development over the last year. All committals to Cloverhill Remand Prison who are involved in a drug maintenance programme in the community prior to committal are allowed continue their programmes while in custody there. This development was extended to Mountjoy Prison in October 2000, with all new committals and prisoners transferring from Cloverhill Remand Prison who were on approved treatment programmes continuing to receive this while in the prison. I am informed that there were 250 prisoners in receipt of methadone maintenance and a further 56 prisoners in receipt of detoxification on 27 March 2001. The number of prisoners currently on methadone maintenance has increased by 36% on the figures of 6 December 2000. These figures indicate both my own and the Prison Service's commitment to delivering a prison based drug treatment service which is equivalent to that available in the community. Methadone is a chemical substitute for heroin and even properly administered is not without some possible side effects. Taken to excess, or in conjunction with opiates, methadone consumption can have very harmful outcomes for abusers. These facts mean that dispersing methadone in our prisons is a very serious business requiring constant vigilance by medical and prison staff who use urine testing to ensure that prisoners on methadone maintenance or detox are not putting themselves at greater risk.
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