JAILS TO TAKE SOFTER LINE ON CANNABIS

Prison governors are to be urged to take a softer line against prisoners
using cannabis as part of a new government strategy on drug use in prison.

Instead, more resources will be directed at tackling heroin users by
subjecting them to repeated drug-testing and greater punishments.

The Independent has acquired a copy of the 23-page review document which
forms the basis for the new strategy, which will be announced on Tuesday by
drugs minister George Howarth.

Prison service officials have been concerned that the large-scale use of
mandatory drugs-testing has led to thousands of drug-using inmates being
given up to 35 "extra days" on their sentence. More than 16,500 prisoners -
mostly cannabis users - were given punishments of extra days in the last
financial year. This is equivalent to filling one and a half jails for a
year at a cost of over #10m.

Governors are to be urged to "distinguish between drug markets which
generate the most harm to individuals and prisoner safety and those that are
less damaging". They are advised to "increase the differential" between
punishments for cannabis and for Class A drugs and to consider alternative
punishments such as loss of privileges and restrictions on visits.

Both staff and prisoners indicated in the report that they believe the
system bears down too heavily on cannabis users. It states that 82 per cent
of prisoners agreed with the statement: "People should be able to smoke
cannabis in prison without fear of punishment."

The review adds that "more surprisingly perhaps, interviews with wing
officers revealed ambivalent attitudes to reporting prisoners for smoking
cannabis". Some 44 per cent of staff agreed with the statement: "Personal
use of cannabis is not detrimental to good order and discipline".

The review makes clear that drugs policies in prison will fall into line
with those recently announced by "drugs tsar" Keith Hellawell for the wider
public. This means a shift in emphasis towards improved drug treatment and
education in order to reduce demand.

The report carries some positive findings on the extent of drug use in
prison, which was running out of control only two years ago. Positive drug
tests among prisoners have fallen from 34.6 per cent in December 1995 to
less than 20 per cent in the early months of this year.

The mandatory random drug-testing programme, which requires some 10 per cent
of inmates to be tested, is expensive. The review recommends that governors
reduce the amount of mandatory testing and concentrate resources on inmates
who have previously been found to misuse a Class A drug.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"