NEEDLE EXCHANGE SYSTEM FOR JAILS

HEROIN addicts in prison could be provided with clean needles in a radical
shift of government policy aimed at curbing a rapid increase in hepatitis
and other diseases among inmates.

The prisons minister, Joyce Quinn, has asked officials to look into the
possibility of setting up needle exchange schemes and to report back to her
by the end of March.

The move came after figures showed a rise of almost 50 per cent in
hepatitis C cases in prisons within a single year.

In the same year, a range of counselling and therapy schemes had been set
up to help prisoners deal with drug addiction.

Ms Quinn said in a written Commons answer that although she had "no plans
at present" to introduce a needle exchange scheme, she had commissioned
advice on the subject.

Last night, a Prison Service official said the possibility of setting up a
scheme was under active consideration.

"I think we recognise that there's a problem there and it is being tackled
through a group of officials. They will look specifically at the needle
exchange scheme as one particular way round it," he said.

In answer to questions from Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, Ms
Quinn revealed that the number of hepatitis C cases reported in prisons
rose from 543 in 1995-96 to 760 in 1996-7. He said ministers should accept
that drug abuse was endemic inside prisons and should tackle the problem
accordingly.

"If hepatitis is spreading in prisons, so possibly is Aids. The cause is
almost always people sharing needles. It can be curbed very simply and
cheaply with needle exchanges," he said.

He said random testing schemes could actually be increasing the use of hard
drugs in prisons. Because cannabis stayed in the system longer than heroin,
prisoners knew it was safe to take heroin on a Friday because they would
not be tested over the weekend. If they took cannabis, it might still
register in tests conducted the following Monday.

In 1996-97, anti-addiction schemes were set up in 19 prisons around the
country, ranging from counselling programmes to "therapeutic communities"
in which prisoners with drug problems live separately and receive intensive
treatment.

Those schemes have been evaluated over the past two years by PDM
Consulting, who have recently presented a draft report to ministers.
Although the findings have not been made public, it is known that the firm
has looked both at schemes which aim to achieve total abstention and at
others which take a more pragmatic approach.

A spokesman for the Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust, which runs
a programme in several prisons called "Twelve Steps to Abstinence", said it
broadly supported the idea of needle exchanges though it preferred its own
approach.

"Our position is that people in prison should have the same drug treatment
services as are available to them on the outside, and needle exchange
schemes are one of them," he said.

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service, which allows prisoners free
access to multi-purpose sterilising tablets, said he would not favour such
a move because needles could be used as weapons.

"If a prisoner fills a needle with blood and takes a member of staff
hostage, that is a very serious situation," he said.