EXPLOSIVE REPORT REVEALS TRUE EXTENT OF PRISON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIC

A new 265-page report has revealed the grim extent of drug abuse
within the Scottish prison system.

The result of two years of work by a research team led by Dr David
Shewan at Glasgow Caledonian University, it garnered views directly
from prison inmates and addiction staff about the scale of the drugs
epidemic and how it should be tackled.

This week the explosive findings from the study - commissioned by the
Scottish Prison Service to inform its policy and considered the most
in-depth study of its kind - are made public for the first time by
the Sunday Herald.

As part of the research, completed in June this year, inmates from
eight penal establishments in Scotland were interviewed in focus
groups or on a one-to-one basis. They were taken from Aberdeen, HMP
Women's Unit, Barlinnie, Barlinnie (Remand), Cornton Vale, Polmont,
Saughton and Shotts. A questionnaire taking the views of 60 addiction
specialists from 12 of the country's 14 jails was also carried out to
assess the impact of current policies.

At a time when the issues of prisoners and drug abuse are becoming
key election battle grounds, the report's findings paint a picture of
a jail system in the grip of a heroin crisis and a prison staff that
feels it is powerless to curb the problem.

The researchers revealed through candid interviews with prisoners,
particularly long-term prisoners, that drugs had become more
prevalent in the prison system. It was also acknowledged by both
inmates and staff that the prevalence of cannabis had been eclipsed
by the availability of heroin.

One male prisoner said: "When I was younger it wasnae so much heroin,
know what I mean? It was mostly valium and tems [temgesic] and hash,
maybe the odd bit of coke. But, like, heroin wasn't as bad when I was
a young offender, as what it is now. It's rife now."

A female inmate warned: "Heroin is getting more acceptable. I mean,
heroin is just everywhere." The report claimed that some addiction
staff members "seemed almost resigned to the presence" of drugs in their jail.

It also found that, while prisoners and staff tended not to discuss
rates of heroin use, some did. Researchers were told by one prisoner
that he was using "near enough a half-gram of kit [heroin] a day",
while another admitted to injecting two to three times a day. At one
prisoner group interview, three of the seven inmates present claimed
to have smoked heroin that morning.

Controversially, researchers were told that the policy of drug
testing had turned cannabis-using inmates into heroin addicts.

"It's the drug testing that's knocked guys from smoking cannabis on
to heroin because cannabis is in your system for 28 days after you've
had a smoke," one male prisoner said. "Whereas with smack, I can take
a burn of smack now, go back to ma cell, drink three litres of water
and it'll no' be in ma system. If I did that with cannabis I'd get done.

"So a lot of people are turning to heroin for that reason."

Another said: "I know guys that actually come in - doesnae take smack
outside - well-respected guys, come into prison and started taking
smack and ended up with a smack habit in prison for the simple reason
that it's easier tae get smack out your system than it is cannabis."

In addressing the question of how the drugs were coming into the
jails, addiction staff admitted that, given its size, heroin was
"probably the easiest" drug to smuggle into prison. The staff as well
as prisoners "almost always" pointed to visits as the main means of
bringing drugs in.

"They come in and all they want to do is try and arrange to get the
stuff in," said one staff member. Residential staff revealed that a
prisoner who is more likely to be suspected, or getting more visits -
such as a remand prisoner - may also be coerced into arranging to
bring in drugs for a "main player".

Interviews with one staff group described arrangements by dealers
within the prison for someone to be sentenced for non-payment of a
fine so that they could bring drugs in, on the understanding that the
fine would be paid, allowing the individual to leave the prison again.

The rush to find who had drugs and to buy them was described as
"mayhem". The study details how this process could fill an entire day
for prisoners, and how new arrivals to the jail would be targeted for
the sale of drugs "almost immediately".

One prisoner said: "I think in all honesty, [the staff] know exactly
what's going on in that hall ... but there's nothing they can really
do to stop it."

An officer added: "We do our best just to try and stop all the
avenues we can, but as soon as we stop one avenue then another one
opens, so we have to be constantly on the alert for drugs. Also,
prisoners are now beginning to smuggle mobile phones into prison,
which also helps the drug dealers and makes our job even more difficult."

The researchers were told that staff shortages were hindering the
fight to tackle the problem effectively and that, in any case, some
officers "turned a blind eye" to drug use. Prisoners from a number of
jails claimed they had had experiences where staff had seen them
using drugs but allowed them to do so.

The report states that while prisoners did not feel that staff
willingly condoned drug use, drugs were viewed by the officers as a
"necessity" to control levels of disruption in the jail.

Staff and prisoners in some prisons linked the perceived rise in drug
use with the end of the policy of taking remission as a punishment.
It was argued that punishments now in force - such as losing
recreation for seven days or losing wages - did not deter prisoners
from taking drugs.

The fear of violence and disturbance was another reason prisoners
felt that staff failed to act on their knowledge of drug abuse.
"There'd be trouble. There'd be stabbings. Officers would get
stabbed, 'cause there's two of them in the hall. There are probably
about 280 prisoners."

In a damning indictment of current efforts to tackle drugs and their
health consequences in jails, one addictions co-ordinator said: "The
main problems are simply a matter of resources. It's a public health
issue and it's a massive health problem. I estimate there are 2500
problematic drug misusers who pass through here every year. A lot of
these guys will use needles. Those who use needles, generally
speaking, tend to be HIV-positive or have hepatitis C, or some other
blood-borne virus, so there's a huge healthcare issue which I don't
think it being adequately addressed."

Another specialist said: "I think they have to admit at some point
that there is a strong problem within prisons and we're compounding
the problem by taking away, for instance, syringes, because then
they're really sharing with people whose backgrounds they don't know.
So we're actually encouraging the spread of some of the things that
we're trying to reduce."

The research also examined drug programmes offered in the prisons and
found that, at best, only limited data was available. Just three
prisons could provide figures, but the actual number of referrals for
each was unknown.

In the absence of data, the researchers used the prison with the most
complete figures to estimate how long it look prisoners to enter
programmes. It was found that the average waiting time for
intervention was 111 days, or almost four months.

The survey of addiction teams revealed that 43% agreed or strongly
agreed that most prisoners with drug problems are not in contact with
drug interventions. A further 49% agreed or strongly agreed that
mandatory drug testing (MDT) had led prisoners to change their drug
use to heroin. A further 22% said they did not know. A large minority
of staff - 40% - believed MDT "no longer served any purpose".

Stewart Stevenson, the SNP's deputy justice spokesman, described the
report' s findings as a "wake-up call". He added: "It must be a clear
signal that we must make more efforts to get people out of their drug
addiction. Prisons are the place where it should be more difficult to
get drugs, not easier."

Margaret Mitchell, the Scottish Tory justice spokeswoman, said: "If
it takes a glass partition at visiting times to stop drugs getting
into prisons, then that's what will have to happen. We'll do what we
have to do to make our prisons drug-free because that's the least
that people should expect."

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: "We are doing all that is
possible, given the resources that we have. We have drug dogs, we
tackle prisoners inside ... but there needs to be a balance so that
what you do with the minority doesn't detract from the opportunities
for the majority."

l Sixty addiction specialists from 12 of the country's 14 prisons
were surveyed.

l Some 65% felt that visit regulations should be made stricter to
make a difference to drug problems in prison.

l A third felt drug assessments did not effectively identify drug
users at admission.

l 87% believed that different treatment programmes should be
available for different types of users.

l 88% admitted that drugs were present both in prisons' designated
drug free areas and drug support units.

l 49% of addiction staff said they believed that mandatory drug tests
had caused prisoners to change their drug use to opiates, such as heroin.

l Most addictions staff interviewed by researchers, 69%, said they
disagreed or strongly disagreed that mandatory drug testing had
caused an overall decrease in the amount of drugs used by inmates.

l A sizeable minority - 40% - supported the statement that mandatory
drug tests "no longer served any purpose".

l 54% of addictions staff felt that medical and nursing teams are
adequately staffed to deal with prisoners' health needs. 80% said
that inmates' mental health problems were often unrecognised.