PRISONS URGED TO REDUCE DRUG MISUSE

THE Scottish Prison Service could help reduce overcrowding by placing
greater emphasis on time in prison as an opportunity to reduce drugs
misuse, Mr Clive Fairweather, Scotland's chief inspector of prisons,
yesterday told an Oxford audience.

Mr Fairweather was addressing the Howard League in a lecture at New College
where he contrasted the current stability and progress in the Scottish
penal system with the crisis facing the much-larger English system. Much of
what he said is likely to be reflected in his annual report which he will
present in Edinburgh tomorrow.

He stated yesterday: "If more individuals leave prison with their drug
habit reduced, there could be a delay or even a cessation of some repeat
crimes. To achieve this, there will have to be a much more thorough
assessment of the size of each and every prisoner's drug problem at the
reception so that resources can be prioritised.

"This is, I believe, fundamental to all future drug strategies - a much
greater emphasis on reception or induction which should be a process and
not just an event. It is where I would concentrate most mandatory drug
testing resources."

Mr Fairweather also called for greater community involvement, particularly
through greater participation by Drugs Action Teams and prisoners'
families, in the immediate pre-release period. If prisoners could see that
through-care arrangements were really beginning to work, more of them might
become involved in drug reduction programmes and move towards drug free
lifestyles.

He went on to repeat a call made many times before by the prison
inspectorate in Scotland - a better deal for remandees. For the first time,
the remand population had started to fall, proportionally now representing
a sixth of the daily prison population in Scotland against a fifth last year.

"They figure more prominently among suicides," he said, "and often get very
little treatment for drug withdrawal problems because of the lack of
resources caused by overcrowding. More recently, and at long last,
individual governors have began to respond to the plight of these
individuals and to provide better conditions for them. So they should. The
innocent, not guilty or not proven deserve priority treatment over the
convicted, not the other way round."

Checked-by: Pat Dolan