PRISON DRUGS PLAN DEFENDED

A scheme in which prisoners are put back on drugs before being released
from jail has been defended by a Scottish Executive minister.

The radical programme called Retox is aimed at reducing the number of
deaths among ex-inmates who overdose on hard drugs as soon as they are freed.

In 1999, 15 former prisoners died within two weeks of leaving jails.

Deputy Justice Minister Dr Richard Simpson told BBC Scotland's Holyrood
programme: "If there are that many deaths occurring within the first few
weeks of coming out of prison, we are obliged to do something. It's a
handful of prisoners."

He insisted that those considered for the programme were "totally chaotic
people who repeatedly in going out of prison have risked their lives by
taking quantities of hard drugs".

Asked how the scheme was viewed in areas trying to reduce drug-taking and
crime, Dr Simpson said: "The alternative is they come out of jail, they
commit crime on those very communities and they then use that criminally
earned money to get drugs.

"So saying that this is not to protect the community is a completely false
approach.

"There are 7,500 prisoners entering treatment systems, there are only a
handful in Retoxification. This must be kept in perspective."

Back in prison

David Bryce, a member of the Glasgow-based Calton Athletic Recovery Group,
said he knew of a man who had been given methadone before being released
from a six-year sentence.

"Maybe it sounded okay in some people's idea as a theory but it never
proved successful.

"The boy came out, all the services was there for him, but because he was
already on drugs, all of his prescribed drugs, because he was an addict he
started using other drugs and started offending very quickly and I think
he's back in prison today."

Professor Neil McKeganey, from the Drugs Misuse Centre, Glasgow University,
said: "We know that when drug addicts leave jail they are at very high risk
of overdose if they resume their previous pattern of drug use, out in the
community."

"If you've got someone who's obtained abstinence and they're going to be
released, it does seem strange to then reintroduce them to drugs prior to
their release.

"My own feeling is that one should be ensuring that they've got adequate
support services, they have information alerting them to the risks, if they
do resume their previous pattern of drug use.

Small Minority

"But reintroducing them to drugs is an extreme response, which if it was
appropriate would probably be only so for a very small number of people."

Three out of every four prisoners enter jail with some kind of drugs
problem and the service insists Retoxification is only for a hard core of
prisoners who refuse or are unable to reform.

Dr Alan Mitchell, Scottish Prisons Service, said: "In a small minority of
cases, in an attempt to prevent overdose, we retoxify prisoners such that,
when they are liberated they reduce, the risk of death from overdose is
very much reduced."