FAIRWEATHER TELLS JAILS TO STEP UP HELP FOR ADDICTS

SCOTTISH prisons should be doing more to stamp out heroin abuse and
send former addicts back into society drug-free, the Chief Inspector
of Prisons, Clive Fairweather has warned.

In his annual report, Mr Fairweather called for jails to launch a
concerted campaign against the "more corrupting" drugs such as
opiates. Mandatory drugtesting (MDT) has revealed heroin use behind
bars is twice as high in Scotland as in England.

Mr Fairweather recommended that suspected heroin users should be
targeted for testing and given stiffer penalties than cannabis uses
when caught - a policy already adopted south of the Border.

"We need to focus far more on those using Class A drugs, and on the
early stages in their sentence when people first come in," said Mr
Fairweather.

"Mandatory drug testing has been an undoubted success in deterring
cannabis use, but these are the drugs with less corrupting habits. We
want to home in on the drugs that cause more confusion and violence."

Mr Fairweather called for research to discover whether there was any
truth in persistent rumours that prisoners were switching from
cannabis to heroin because it is more difficult to detect in the body.

As well as primitive measures to deter drug-taking, he called for more
resources to be put into helping prisoners come off drugs.

Long-term prisons tended to have lots of drugs workers and
rehabilitation facilities but short-term prisoners were often neglected.

He suggested incentives, ranging from certificates of being free of
drugs to in-cell television, to reward prisoners who kick their drugs
habit.

More than a quarter of prison drug tests are positive, on average, but
some prisons show much higher rates of use. In Dungavel category C
prison, 45 per cent of tests are positive, and in Dumfries Young
Offenders institution - which houses young people who have committed
more serious crimes - the level is 40 per cent. By comparison, at
Glenochil YOI it is 8 per cent.

The results are particularly alarming given that the true numbers
taking drugs in prison are likely to be double what is detected.

Responding to Mr Fairweather's report, Donald Dewar, the Scottish
Secretary, said that MDT results showed the Scottish Prison Service
was having some success in tackling drugs.

"I... welcome the fact that 17 out of the 22 penal establishments in
Scotland now offer drug-free areas to suitable prisoners, and that by
next spring 20 - representing about a quarter of available capacity -
will have drug-free areas."

Dave Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, estimated that
half of Scotland's prison population was dependent on drugs. Many of
these people would be better off at drug rehabilitation clinics in the
community rather than adding to the overcrowding in Scottsh jails, he
said.

"Imprisonment of drug users costs much more than the most intensive
drug treatment yet rarely addresses the causes of drug-related
offending," said Mr Liddell.

"We need to make sure that we make the most of the possibilities to
direct drug users away from the expensive criminal justice system and
into care and rehabilitation."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry