LOCKING OUT THE DEADLY HABIT

How do you abstain when truthfully you don't want to and even after you
have completed and learnt what the courses offer and after you have spent
years of your life in prison ? Abstain in an environment where drugs are
freely available? - Inmate's perspective

A FEMALE prison officer at the Sir David Longland high-security jail picked
up the smiling baby brought in by a woman visiting her partner. A bag of
drugs spilled out of the baby's blanket.

As officials questioned the woman, she hesitated when asked the child's name.

She didn't know it. She had "borrowed" the child to smuggle in the drugs.

Shortly afterwards, a man also visiting the jail asked for his baby back.
His wife had "loaned" her baby to the woman - a complete stranger - to
allay suspicion as she took the drugs into the jail.

Such are the desperate measures resorted to by some to feed narcotics into
Queensland prisons. Unofficial figures estimate that more than 80 percent
of prisoners are serving time for drug-related offences - and they don't
leave their addiction at the prison gate. Others develop an addiction while
inside.

Prison officer Jason Fairweather, who is visits co-ordinator at Sir David
Longland, says it is not uncommon for visitors to use children as drug
carriers or as shields from surveillance cameras and the gaze of officers
when passing drugs.

"It might be that the mother will go into the toilet with the child and
place the drugs in the back pocket of its pants and then go back to the
visits," he says.

"Dad then puts the child on his lap, takes the drugs out and often will
hide behind their kid to place the drugs in their mouth."

Now, after a period of inaction, Queensland Corrections, the service
provider for these jails, has decided it's time to get tough.

Measures being taken by prison authorities are wide-ranging, and include:

* Strip-searches of prisoners before and after they enter the visiting area.

* A regular team of officers who can detect, from week to week, any
out-of-character behaviour by prisoners or their visitors.

* High-tech drug-detecting equipment, used on visitors, that can sniff out
whether the person has had any contact with drugs in the previous 24 hours.

* Educational signs and videos aimed at deterring visitors from smuggling
drugs.

* More sniffer dogs and a higher level of drug-detection training for officers.

Three months ago, Brisbane Women's Prison introduced the high-tech drug
detecting equipment and put up the warn-ing signs. Visitors who are
suspected of having had contact, or of carrying, drugs are given the option
of going home or submitting to a possible strip and internal body search.

General manager Paul Carter has re-ported a drop in positive urine analysis
tests from about 27 percent to 2 percent.

But Catholic Prison Ministry co-ordinator Denise Foley says that the
get-tough measures are targeting the wrong people.

She says such measures often are a knee-jerk reaction to political
pressures placed on jail management and families, and inmates are penalised
as a result.

"While you have things like overcrowding, lack of drug programmes and a
revolving-door policy because we offer nothing in terms of support once
they (inmates) are out in the community, you cannot address drugs in jail,"
she says.

Queensland Corrections established a task force to tackle the prison drug
trade after six inmates at Sir David Longland overdosed on heroin during
one weekend in July. Fairweather says heroin and cannabis are the two drugs
most often used by inmates at the prison.

"Intelligence tens us the prisoners tend to stick to heroin because
marijuana stays in the system (blood) for two or three weeks and if they
get tested, the THC comes up," he said. "With heroin, it stays in your
system for two or three days; sometimes it is out of the system in six
hours."

Ironically, some of the efforts to crack down on drugs can push prisoners
on to harder drugs.

Fairweather and prisoner support groups say random urine tests for drugs
are regularly conducted in Queensland jails and this has turned inmates to
using heroin to avoid detection.

But addiction alone is not the problem. Authorities say drugs are the cause
of many incidents of violence in jails - murders, bashings and sexual
assaults. Prisoners able to acquire and on-sell drugs are the power figures
among inmates.

Queensland Corrections acting chief executive officer Kevin Corcoran says
sexual standovers are commonplace and often involve "heavy-duty" prisoners
dealing drugs to vulnerable inmates. "The kids cannot pay the (drug) debt
and then they become their sexual playthings for the remainder of their
sentences," he says. "It's very hard to do much about it and very hard to
control so you keep moving people around."

Fairweather said it was almost impossible to control the actions of
inmates' associates outside the jails. "We cannot stop them from depositing
money into bank accounts or TAB accounts. Nor can you stop them pressuring
families."

Syringes are another form of currency, with one known to have been shared
around for about five years.

"They are hard to get into prison, which means prisoners often share
needles -and pass on diseases such as hepatitis C."

This problem is exacerbated by the decision by the Anti-Discrimination
Tribunal ruling last year that to segregate HIV-positive prisoners is
unlawful.

Corcoran said prisoners had no way of cleaning syringes, which are illegal
contraband. While some centres "unofficially" leave bleach for prisoners to
use, this is not a total purifier when battling against HIV and hepatitis
C.

THE Queensland Corrective Services Commission does not intend to introduce
a needle-exchange programme and is confident its drug programmes are
comprehensive.

The commission has no available data on the number of prisoners with
hepatitis C but says interstate research suggests about 35 percent are
infected. It has developed an educational brochure about hepatitis C aimed
at reducing the transmission of it and other blood-borne diseases.

"The commission also is about to trial methadone programmes at Brisbane
Women's and Townsville jails to enable methadone users entering the system
to continue their treatment."

Prisoner legal service co-ordinator Karen Fletcher says much of the prison
population is restless and confused as a result of the upheaval that
Queensland jails have undergone since the mass breakout from Sir David
Longland prison.

"There is confusion around people's eligibility for community release
programmes. The blanket response to the escapes and the sacking of the
parole board last year has impacted on prisoners, giving them loss of hope
and confidence in the system. They turn to hard drugs to deal with their
frustrations because the goal posts keep changing. Prisons are a political
football."

Corrective Services Minister Tom Barton has no plans for introducing the
former Coalition government's plan to allow anyone entering Queensland
jails to be strip-searched and is considering revising ministerial
guidelines for parole.

Detective Inspector Key Robinson, general manager of the Proactive
Intelligence Network, a police officer seconded to the prison service has
suggested the introduction of drug-free units.

His proposal would follow the example of Austria and introduce a scheme
under which prisoners enter into a contract with the administration to
remain drug-free. The aim is to break the drug-dependent cycle. He says
benefits include higher productivity from the prison industry and a zero
rate of escapes and deaths in custody.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson