HEROIN 'A MAJOR PROBLEM FOR JAIL'

THE heroin problem in Mountjoy is getting completely out of control, with
two out of every three prisoners now using the drug, a former research
psychologist with the Department of Justice, Dr Paul O'Mahony, warned
yesterday.

Dr O'Mahony said the level of treatment places for drug addicts was totally
inadequate in Mountjoy and called on his former employers at the justice
department to comprehensively review their policy on dealing with drug
abuse in prison.

Dr O'Mahony will tell delegates at a conference organised by the Irish
Penal Reform Trust today that the heroin problem in Irish prisons has
increased 15-fold since 1981.

"I have been doing surveys in the Irish prison system since 1981 and at
that time there were 41 addicts in the Mountjoy complex.

"Now there are 600, all of whom have used or are still involved with heroin
in prison. It is an escalating problem and nothing that is being done is
dealing with it.

"It is getting more and more out of hand," Dr O'Mahony, a member of the
Irish Penal Reform Trust, said.

Latest statistics show that one out of every ten prisoners using heroin in
prison said they began their drug abuse in jail. Dr O'Mahony believes the
prison culture is helping to perpetuate drug use.

"People think of drug users as victims, but the prisoners using drugs don't
see it that way. They are people who like drugs. They find it a useful
alternative to prison life.

"They find it exciting smuggling drugs in and having syringes. It is an
massive problem now and it is difficult for anyone to come up with workable
solutions, but the small treatment programmes we have so far are totally
inadequate," Dr O'Mahony said.

"Having 11 people in a detoxification unit is just a drop in the ocean and
has next to no effect," he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Kimmett Edgar, a research officer at Oxford University Centre
for Criminological Research, called on the justice department to consider
introducing random drug tests in Irish jails, with punishments or mandatory
treatment programmes for prisoners who test positive for drugs.


Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)