ACTION PLAN TO TACKLE DRUG ABUSE IN PRISONS

ALL of Scotland's 17 prisons will have an anti-drugs co-ordinator as part
of a multi-million-pound action plan aimed at tackling the problem of jail
addicts, it emerged yesterday.

The strategy, which will focus on treating addicted prisoners and liaising
with outside agencies, will be unveiled at Perth prison tomorrow.

Angus MacKay, the deputy justice minister, and the drugs tsar, Keith
Hellawell, met yesterday in Edinburgh to discuss ways of combating drug
abuse among Scottish prisoners. The move comes as figures suggest that
three in every four new inmates test positive for drugs on their arrival in
prison.

Last year, 5,000 inmates took part in treatment programmes, a figure which
the initiative aims to increase.

Derek Turner, the general secretary of the Scottish Prison Officers'
Association, welcomed the move, but called on the executive to commit
itself to continued funding.

He said: "Drug abuse in Scotland's prisons is a massive problem.

"We welcome any initiative which will help our members stem the influx of
drugs in our prisons, but we must insist on adequate funding for something
as important as this.

"Resources are already stretched and we are constantly asked to make more
savings."

The SPOA was deeply critical of the executive last year after it
transferred Pounds 13 million from the Scottish Prison Service budget to
fund the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency.

The new strategy comes after a siege in Glenochil Prison, Clackmannanshire,
last week when 25 inmates barricaded themselves into a wing after being
strip-searched during a drugs raid.