BOY OF 8 CARRIED DRUG INTO JAIL, SAY POLICE

A BOY aged eight was detained by police yesterday after he was
allegedly found carrying drugs on a prison visit.

A woman with the child, not his mother, was being questioned by
detectives last night. The pair were detained in the morning as they
went to visit an inmate in Barlinnie prison, Glasgow.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said that they had not got as far
as the visiting hall when they were stopped. They had been taken to
nearby Baird Street police station, where the boy had been found to be
in possession of a quantity of controlled drugs, believed to be heroin.

The spokesman said that the boy was later released and that a report
would be submitted to the Reporter to the Children's Panel. She said
that the drugs had a street value of between UKP150 and UKP175 but
could be worth about UKP500 inside the prison.

Barlinnie, on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow, is Scotland's biggest
prison, housing 1,100 inmates. Visiting times are no longer restricted
to a particular time of day, and in many cases families book an
appointment for a specific time.

David Melrose, chairman of the Scottish Prison Officers' Association,
said that it was difficult to stop drugs entering jails. "If we have
open visit facilities, it is readily available for abuse." He said
that in the past babies had been used to smuggle drugs into prisons.
"The only thing that would stop it is a return to complete closed
visits which is unacceptable in this day and age."

Gaille McCann, a Glasgow councillor and founder member of Mothers
Against Drugs, said that a stricter regime was needed in prisons.
"Inmates will stop at nothing to get their drugs in. It is immoral."

The Scottish Prison Service declined to comment on the incident.