FULHAM JAIL HIT BY DRUG TEST SWOOP

A quarter of all inmates at the Fulham prison were drug-tested last week,
following staff allegations of serious irregularities in drug-testing
procedures at the troubled private jail near Sale.

Officers of the Corrections Commission, including members of its security
and emergency services group, began a surprise drug inspection at the
prison early last Monday morning during which 143 prisoners were
drug-tested over three days, with five refusing.

A spokesman for Corrections Commissioner Penny Armytage confirmed that the
inspection was ordered because of "concerns over the integrity of prison
testing procedures".

Sources at the prison said that before testing some prisoners would be
warned they would be urinalysis tested and so had the chance to "flush"
drug traces from their system. They claim this was to reduce the number of
"dirty" test results reported to the commission.

Under its contract with the State Government, Fulham's operator,
Australasian Correctional Management, faces fines if the level of positive
drug tests is too high.

Corrections Commission random testing, on top of regular testing by prison
management, is a feature of Victoria's prison system. But The Age believes
this inspection, by members of the security and emergency services group,
auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers and commission monitors was a direct
result of allegations by staff.

Some officers showed concern with the jail's testing procedures during
interviews with commission monitors who visited Fulham on an unrelated
matter the previous Friday. On the Monday the commissioner's team arrived
unannounced at 6am and began random urinalysis tests.

Ms Armytage's spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that the concerns
voiced by the officers were about the drug test warnings given to inmates.
"We can only say that they were to do with procedures surrounding drug
testing," he said.

"The commissioner's office undertakes a program of random drug testing on
Victorian prisons. This happens regularly. Won Wron prison was tested last
week, and in November Bendigo and Loddon were also tested."

A spokesman for Australasian Correctional Management strongly denied
irregularities in drug testing at the jail or that prisoners were warned.
"What you've been told is completely false," he said. "That allegation is
not correct at all. The drug testing ... by the commissioner's office is
routine. The prison has undergone four of these independent drug test
regimes since the prison was opened and in each case they've either matched
or been below ACM's testing for positives."

Fulham is believed to be running slightly above its target for this year.
It has a benchmark of 7.9per cent positives but is now at 7.98per cent.

The commission had sent two monitors to Fulham on the Friday to interview
staff, after an internal ACM investigation into allegations of sexual
harassment, abuse, intimidation and bullying by senior officers at the jail.

The Age revealed last month that four executives at the jail, including
general manager John Myers, were under investigation on a range of charges.
Finance and administration manager Russell Briggs was later dismissed, and
two other managers strongly reprimanded.