LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

TIME TO GET TOUGH ON DRUGS IN PRISON

>From His Honour Judge Barrington Black

Sir, It has been accepted for many years that many aspects of criminal
activities are motivated by the need to feed a drugs habit.

My own experience has shown that the majority of hard drugs users with whom
I deal started with cannabis, and I find the arguments to legalise that
drug quite untenable.

I am astonished, however, to read that only now does the Prison Service
seem to be getting to grips with the problem of drugs within prisons by
proposing mandatory "closed visits" for inmates caught with drugs and the
more extensive use of closed-circuit television and sniffer dogs (report
and leading article, March 12). If effective precautionary measures have
been taken in other places, why is it that this enormous problem still
exists in our prisons?

The mitigation plea that were I to send an offender to prison he would have
drugs readily available has been a frequent one. Moreover, the acceptance
of that position has been highlighted by the existence of "drugs free"
wings within some prisons, and I have been urged to take into account a
prisoner's voluntary request to be lodged in such a wing.

I trust the belated action to be taken can be immediate and effective, and
perhaps accompanied by the provision of more treatment and addiction
centres within prisons, with the incentive offered to addicts that if they
effectively take up such treatment, that will be taken into account in
advancing their release.

Yours faithfully, BARRINGTON BLACK, Harrow Crown Court, Hailsham Drive,
Harrow, Middlesex HA1 4TU. March 12.

>From the Under Secretary of State, Home Office

Sir, Your leader, "Hard drugs, soft rules", understates the vigour with
which illegal drug use is already being tackled in our prisons. Governors
have the power to prevent physical contact on visits where staff suspect
drugs may be passed. Searching of prisoners and visitors, the use of dogs,
closed-circuit television and improved perimeter security also play a part
in a comprehensive strategy to restrict the flow of drugs into prisons.

The number of positive drug-test results in prisons has been falling
steadily. There has been a big reduction in cannabis use, and this has been
achieved without any increase in the use of hard drugs. Over the last year,
over #6 million has been invested in a range of types of treatment, all of
which are being independently evaluated.

However, we are not complacent. That is why I commissioned last summer a
review of the prison drug strategy. We expect to publish a new strategy in
May. Independent research is expected to show that the often repeated
assertion that prisoners are switching from cannabis to heroin is not
supported either by the testing data or by the emerging findings of the
research.

Opinion which cannot be backed up by evidence is peculiarly unhelpful in
this area, and neither your leader nor Sir David Ramsbotham's remarks to
the Home Affairs Committee (report, March 11) shed much light for that
reason.

Yours faithfully, GEORGE HOWARTH, Home Office, Queen Anne's Gate, SW1H 9AT.
March 13.