SEARCHERS MUST TACKLE JAIL DRUG SCOURGE

Alarming figures showing how many prisoners in Northern Ireland are
using drugs indicate that there is an urgent need to find ways of
stopping the supplies. Although the percentage of positive tests
dropped from 25% in 2005 to 15% last year, this compares to just 7%
in 2002, when the problem surfaced.

The stark fact is that drugs showed up in nearly 2,000 tests carried
out during the last two years in Ulster's prisons, at Maghaberry,
Magilligan and Hydebank. There is no indication of how they were
obtained, but the main source must be visitors to prison, as in Britain.

Finding an answer will not be easy, since prison staff are stretched
and searching for drugs is not their top priority. But if we have
reached the state, comparable to Britain, where drugs are as easy to
obtain in prison as on the streets, far more attention - and
resources - must be devoted to the problem.

The "high security" Maghaberry prison is the greatest offender, with
almost one in three drugs tests, over the past three years, showing
positive. In Hydebank, where young people are held, there was an
encouraging drop from 27% in 2005 to 8% last year.

Whatever the authorities are doing, searching both prisoners and
visitors, it is clearly not enough. Since the release of terrorist
prisoners, after the Good Friday Agreement, there is a suspicion that
discipline has been relaxed, along with the numbers of guards on
duty, allowing the drugs trade to flourish.

While the Northern Ireland figure of 15% positive results last year
compares favourably with Britain, it could be only the tip of the
iceberg. Here the tests are voluntary, in return for privileges,
whereas in Britain there is mandatory drug testing once a month on
5% of inmates. Hardened drug users are unlikely to volunteer here for
testing.

Since a relatively high percentage of prisoners will already be
taking drugs, the prison service should be learning from best
practice elsewhere, in intercepting the supply and offering
rehabilitation. Searching should be a routine procedure, for
prisoners and visitors, and more use of CCTV and sniffer dogs would
help.

Former prisoners, in Britain, have described the ingenious methods
used to bring in drugs, which must be countered. Visitors would have
cannabis in condoms, passed to the prisoners, or drugs might be
thrown over prison walls from a nearby road.

Prisoners who are on drugs are usually easier for the prison
authorities to deal with, so a blind eye may often be turned. But
society is left with a problem, after their release, and greater
vigilance, combined with better in-prison rehabilitation, must be the
best answer. Drugs provide no solutions, inside or outside prison.