DRUG CULTURE AT OPEN PRISON IS 'UNACCEPTABLE'

DRUG abuse among inmates at one of Scotland's open prisons is running at
"unacceptable" levels, according to a government report published today.

Random tests on prisoners at Castle Huntly in Perthshire are positive in 17
per cent of cases, with heroin the most commonly abused substance. The
results are regarded as particularly disturbing because the relaxed regime
at the prison allows inmates to leave their cells and work in the local
community.

A report published today by Clive Fairweather, HM Inspector of Prisons for
Scotland, will call on prison staff at Castle Huntly to re-examine their
drugs strategy "as a matter of urgency".

It recommends a targeted daily testing of inmates at the prison rather than
the taking of random samples and calls for a zero tolerance approach to
those who test positive for drugs.

The report also criticises a proposed pilot scheme at Castle Huntly which
will allow the admission of prisoners on supervised methadone programmes.
The report says this will send "entirely the wrong message" to prisoners.

Castle Huntly holds 151 category D offenders who are not considered to be a
danger to the public. Some of the inmates are serving life sentences and
the majority are long-term prisoners coming to the end of their sentences.

Prisoners are locked in their rooms at nights but are allowed home every
fourth weekend and are permitted to carry out voluntary and charity work in
the community. The prison has a well-equipped gymnasium and football pitches.

Mr Fairweather's report, which follows an inspection in November last year,
found that in the previous 11 months a total of 76 prisoners had been sent
back to a closed prison after illegally using drugs. Of those tested, more
than two thirds had taken hard drugs like heroin.

Prisoners are more likely to use heroin because it is undetectable in the
body after two to three days, whereas cannabis stays in the blood for up to
six weeks.

Many of the short-term inmates complained to the inspection team of the
culture of recreational drug use at the prison.

Groups of prisoners at Castle Huntly are allowed to travel by bus when they
go out on work placements or do jobs in the prison workshops and one of the
recent initiatives has been to set up a car valeting service. The level of
positive drugs tests has fallen sharply at Castle Huntly in the last four
years from 27 per cent in 1997/98. It was during that year that two
prisoners absconded from the prison claiming they were trying to escape the
hard-drug culture inside.

However, the inspector's report said there was no reason why the level of
positive tests should not be reduced from the current 17 per cent to single
figures "within months" if the correct policies were followed.

The inspection report praises Castle Huntly for the "considerable progress"
made since its last inspection in 1996 in other areas of prison life.

It adds: "Generally, we felt that management had the appropriate sense of
direction required to better prepare prisoners for release."