PRISONS FAILING DRUG USERS

NEARLY half the drug users in WA prisons who reoffend are committing more
serious crimes.

Director of Prisons Terry Simpson admitted that the rehabilitation record
was not good.

He said he intended to put more resources into rehabilitation programs to
break the drug-crime cycle.

According to a University of WA analysis, 42,385 people were arrested for
drug offences in the 10 years to 1999. Of those, 49.1 per cent were
first-time offenders. Three in four offences involved cannabis use.

Nearly 28 per cent of drug offenders went on to commit the same offence,
compared with 42.6 per cent who went on to more serious crimes .

About 70 per cent of drug users who committed crimes to feed their habit
were re-arrested within five years of their last run-in with police. Users
in this group were arrested 8.4 times on average. Those who limited their
crimes to drug-related offences w ere re-arrested within 2.1 years.

Aboriginal men with a history of drug use and other crimes had a 98 per
cent chance of being re-arrested, compared with 81 per cent for
non-Aboriginal men.

Independent MLA Liz Constable, who has grilled the Government on the state
of prisons, said the latest statistics were disgraceful. Successive
governments had paid lip-service to rehabilitation, she said.

"The Gallop Government, in particular, turned its back on dealing with
this," Dr Constable said. "They are trying to deal with the problem by
ignoring the problem."

About $878,000 was spent on drug treatment programs in 2000-01. Mr Simpson
said it was an improvement on the $530,000 spent in 1998-99 but was small
considering the size of the prison drug problem.

A record 1492 prisoners completed drug rehabilitation programs in 2000-01,
up from 368 in 1997-98. "If you asked me what is the area of greatest
deficit in terms of what we do then it's that area," he said. "It has been
recognised as a priority to redirec t resources into that area. What we are
doing at the moment on a far smaller scale is developing new programs and
trialling them before we expand in that area."

Mr Simpson said gatehouse security would be stepped up to stop the influx
of drugs into prisons.

Revelations in Parliament showed more than one in nine WA prisoners
continued to use illicit drugs while in jail. More than 920 prisoners
tested positive to drugs 1571 times in 2000-01.

Former attorney-general Peter Foss said drug-detecting patches - which are
worn on the skin and change colour if a prisoner uses drugs - could be
effective in getting amphetamines and opiates out of the prison system.

But the drug scourge would not be beaten unless prisoners helped each other.

The review of the criminal careers of drug offenders arrested between 1989
and 1999 was undertaken by the UWA's crime research centre for the Drug and
Alcohol Office.

Office acting executive director Denzil McCotter said the information would
be a valuable tool for government agencies. It provided estimates on the
arrest chances of particular drug user groups.

Rehabilitation programs in prisons came under the spotlight last week after
the release of a review of the sex offender treatment unit which cast doubt
on their effectiveness.

Mr Simpson said the Justice Department was exploring new ways to treat sex
offenders.