$23M INITIATIVE TO HELP 650 PRISONERS KICK DRUG HABIT

NSW prisoners will be guinea pigs in the first Australian jail trials
of radical drug treatments aimed at breaking the cycle of addiction
and crime.

The three clinical trials of naltrexone, buprenorphine and the
long-lasting methadone replacement drug, LAAM, will involve 650
prisoners over the next few years.

The trial of naltrexone, which blocks the effects of opiates such as
heroin, will run for two years from July for 450 prisoners at Parklea
Correctional Centre, near Blacktown.

Fifty inmates at Lithgow Correctional Centre will from next year trial
the use of LAAM, a drug that appears to last twice as long as
methadone and which the State Government said could eventually remove
the need for daily methadone dosing of many prisoners. About 800 of
the State's 7,400 prisoners are now on a methadone program.

Buprenorphine, which is still awaiting final clearance from the
Federal Therapeutic Goods Administration, will be trialled at the
Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre (MRCC) and at the women's
prison, Mulawa, from next year for 150 prisoners. Buprenorphine is a
maintenance therapy similar to methadone, but is taken as a tablet -
not a syrup. Dosing may only be required every second day.

The Minister for Corrective Services, Mr Debus, said the $23.6 million
funding for the trials over the next four years was "part of a radical
plan to stop the cycle of drug abuse and crime".

The new package is in addition to existing programs operating
drug-free wings at Parramatta and other jails.

More than 70 per cent of NSW prisoners are jailed for drug-related
crimes and a recent urine-sampling study by the NSW Bureau of Crime
Statistics and Research found that three-quarters of people arrested
for criminal offences were on drugs.

"Drug-free former inmates will simply mean one thing - less crime,
less housebreaking, less car stealing, less street crime," Mr Debus
said.

"This is a series of Australian and possibly international firsts in
the treatment of drug-addicted inmates."

The Government also announced $10 million funding for new
detoxification centres at Bathurst, Grafton and Parklea jails and the
expansion of existing facilities at Mulawa and the MRCC, both at
Silverwater.

Mr Debus said an extra 3,000 prisoners a year would be admitted to
detoxification.

The Opposition spokesman on corrective services, Mr Brad Hazzard, said
the Government was now "openly admitting" the extent of the drug
problem in jails.

He said up to 90 per cent of prisoners had drug habits but the new
funding represented only $800 for each drug-addicted inmate.
Naltrexone treatment costs about $6,000 when provided by private
operators, although this usually involves its use as a rapid
detoxification drug.

Mr Debus's office said the Parklea trial of naltrexone would use the
tablets for maintenance, which costs $6 a day per person.