Anger At Jail Plan To Give Addicts Syringe-Cleaners

PRISON officers are objecting to plans to distribute syringe-cleaning
tablets to jailed heroin addicts. Wardens say the bleach tablets will not
clean syringes of the most dangerous and widespread disease - hepatitis.
They fear the next step will be to distribute clean syringes, which
officers say is like giving out a loaded gun.

"Prison officers have a huge concern. If you introduce bleach tablets to
clean syringes, one thing it won't clean is the most dangerous virus,
hepatitis C," said Prison Officers' association president Eugene Dennehy.
"We're concerned that the next logical step, not today or tomorrow, but two
or three years down the road, is a needle exchange in prison. This needle
is worse than a loaded gun to our guys." An estimated 70% of intravenous
drug-users in prison have hepatitis C.

Mr Dennehy said the first time staff heard of this initiative was on a
notice board in Mountjoy Jail.

"It was a huge shock to staff to see this notice, without every being
appraised of it. These officers are threatened with needles every day and
then they see this." He said staff in Mountjoy and certain other jails face
being infected every day by a hardcore minority of syringe-wielding
criminals and addicts. "Look at the victims of needle stick injury. When
you see a prison officer who is almost strangling his son when he sees him
using his razor in case he gets infected or an officer who can't have any
relationship with his wife. That's what officers face on a daily basis." He
said officers also have to deal with the nasty habit of some prisoners who
break off the tips of needles and stick them underneath the cell door
handle with some blue tack.

"The officer comes along, opens the door, cuts his hand. So you can
understand the anger when officers hear about giving bleach tablets to
these fellas."

Mr Dennehy said Prison Service director general Sean Aylward had said that
he had no intention of introducing needle exchanges. "He mightn't now, but
down the road, he might, when the bleach tablets are not working." Mr
Dennehy said officers would have no problem with tablets if they were part
of a comprehensive plan to deal with the drugs problem.

"If they are really serious, they should introduce a number of measures,
including more drug-free areas in prison; more emphasis on treatment and
more steps to stop drugs getting into prison.

"Then we might look at bleach tablets. But on their own, they're just a
cosmetic exercise and that's not good enough." The Prison Service was not
contactable yesterday.