DRUGS CHIEF FOR SCOTS PRISONS

SCOTLAND is to have Britain's first prison drugs chief. His task will be to
lead a clampdown on drugs behind bars, Henry McLeish, the Scottish home
affairs minister, announced yesterday.

As part of the drive, pioneering electronic drugs detection equipment will
be installed in Scotland's main jails and a team of sniffer dogs will be
brought in to help in the beefed-up approach to the problem.

For the first time, prisons will enlist prisoners' families to help, by
pressurising their loved ones to get clean of drugs. At present, families
are more likely to be threatened and intimidated into bringing drugs in
with them when they arrive for visits.

The clampdown reflects the acute problems Scottish prisons face with drugs.
Nearly 30 per cent of inmates tested positively for drugs last year,
compared to 20 per cent in England and Wales, and heroin use is more than
three times the level south of the Border.

"I have been tremendously encouraged by the measures the Scottish Prison
Service is taking to address its drugs problem, but I believe more needs to
be done," said Mr McLeish, "If we can break addiction we can prevent a lot
of offending."

In demonstrations and videos at Shotts prison, staff revealed how a kiss is
not just a kiss in the prisoner visiting hall, where an affectionate clasp
of the hand may hide the moment when, drugs are passed over. One prisoner,
working as a cook in the prison canteen, was spotted on surveillance video
palming a packet of drugs and opening his trouser zip to hide it inside his
body.

Diazepam tablets that fetch just 50 pence on the street change hands in
prison at up to UKP10 each, but the money is collected from the prisoners'
family outside the jail, forcing families into debt. Wives are told their
husbands will be stabbed in their cells if they do not pay up.

"I have seen a lot of people get into trouble through drugs: pressure on
their family, pressure on their friends; it's very detrimental to them,"
said Keith MacKay, 35, serving life for murder.

To help inmates, Shotts is pioneering drug-free prison workshops where
prisoners who test clean of drugs earn up to double the usual prison rate
of pay.

Sammy Quigley, 25, a former drug addict serving six years for robbery, who
is taking part in the pilot scheme, said: "If you are not taking drugs any
more you don't want to get involved in the day-to-day drug environment.
This place gives a guy a chance."

Mr McLeish said that the Scottish Prison Service chief executive would look
at extending Shotts' pioneering work to other jails.

Meanwhile, the prisons' drugs chief would seek to share intelligence on
drugs shipments and key figures in the drugs world with police and customs
service, to reduce the amount of drugs getting behind bars.

Crucially, on the treatment side, the drugs chief would be encouraging more
co-operation between drugs agencies outside prison and the services inside
prison. The aim is to achieve throughcare, where an addict's treatment is
disrupted as little as possible by the experience of going to prison and
where former addicts get support straight after they leave jail.

Too many inmates get clean of drugs in the cloistered environment of prison
only to relapse to their old ways when they return to their old haunts, or
even die of overdose because their bodies are no longer acclimatised to
purer street drugs.

Dave Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, welcomed the focus
on throughcare, though he warned that the tougher approach might increase
tensions in jails. There was a disturbance at Aberdeen prison last month
after a crackdown on visitors carrying drugs.

"We would argue that steps should be taken to jail fewer people with drug
related problems," said Mr Liddell.

He called for more drugs rehabilitation services in jails, to reflect the
fact that at any one time up to one third of Scotland's problem drug users
may be behind bars.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson