DRUG USE BY INMATES MUST BE CURBED

Drug use is prison is a reality, but it might be more frustrating for
people that the Correctional Service of Canada appears resigned to the
fact that they can't stop it.

With an estimated 80 per cent of people in federal penitentiaries in
Canada already dealing with a drug or alcohol problem, it's hard to
curb further substance abuse inside jails, said Tim Krause, the
communication manager for the Prairie region of the Correctional
Service of Canada.

"The only way that you could stop it completely is if you had a prison
on an island somewhere that had nobody coming and going into the
institution," Krause said.

"That's not the approach that we take with the Canadian penitentiary
system given the fact that we want to have that community
interaction."

Inmates are finding creative and sometimes weird ways to get drugs
into prisons to feed their habits.

And perhaps that is where the problem really lies - the approach being
taken to drug and alcohol addictions both in our prison system and in
the rest of society.

That's not a call for decriminalization. It is a call for doing more
to help those addicted to drugs, and our prison system could be a
perfect place to test procedures. Maybe all inmates should go through
an intense detox program when they are first incarcerated. We should
deal with both the physical and psychological addictions to drugs to
stop the demand in the prison system.

What is obvious is that the current plan doesn't work. Too many people
in our correctional facilities are there because of an inability to
control their addictions to drugs and alcohol - and the crimes they
commit while drunk or high, or in order to get the substances to get
drunk or high.

If they can continue using those drugs and maintain that addiction
while behind bars, what chance do they have of being rehabilitated and
becoming productive members of society when they are released?

The frustration those in charge of the facilities may have about drug
use in the corrections system is understandable. However, more needs
to be done to stop the problem or the system will fail not only those
going through but also the public it is supposed to help protect.