Subj: Scotland: Drugs chief for Scots prisons



Date: 20 Oct, 1998



Source: The Scotsman







Scotland: Drugs chief for Scots prisons

JENNY BOOTH

Home Affairs Correspondent



SCOTLAND is to have Britain's first prison drugs chief. His 

task will be to lead a clampdown on drugs behind bars, Henry 

McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, announced 

yesterday.



As part of the drive, pioneering electronic drugs detection 

equipment will be installed in Scotland's main jails and a 

team of sniffer dogs will be brought in to help in the 

beefed-up approach to the problem.



For the first time, prisons will enlist prisoners' families 

to help, by pressurising their loved ones to get clean of 

drugs. At present, families are more likely to be threatened 

and intimidated into bringing drugs in with them when they 

arrive for visits.



The clampdown reflects the acute problems Scottish prisons 

face with drugs. Nearly 30 per cent of inmates tested 

positively for drugs last year, compared to 20 per cent in 

England and Wales, and heroin use is more than three times 

the level south of the Border.



"I have been tremendously encouraged by the measures the 

Scottish Prison Service is taking to address its drugs 

problem, but I believe more needs to be done," said Mr 

McLeish, "If we can break addiction we can prevent a lot of 

offending."



In demonstrations and videos at Shotts prison, staff 

revealed how a kiss is not just a kiss in the prisoner 

visiting hall, where an affectionate clasp of the hand may 

hide the moment when, drugs are passed over. One prisoner, 

working as a cook in the prison canteen, was spotted on 

surveillance video palming a packet of drugs and opening his 

trouser zip to hide it inside his body.



Diazepam tablets that fetch just 50 pence on the street 

change hands in prison at up to UKP10 each, but the money is 

collected from the prisoners' family outside the jail, 

forcing families into debt. Wives are told their husbands 

will be stabbed in their cells if they do not pay up.



"I have seen a lot of people get into trouble through drugs: 

pressure on their family, pressure on their friends; it's 

very detrimental to them," said Keith MacKay, 35, serving 

life for murder.



To help inmates, Shotts is pioneering drug-free prison 

workshops where prisoners who test clean of drugs earn up to 

double the usual prison rate of pay.



Sammy Quigley, 25, a former drug addict serving six years 

for robbery, who is taking part in the pilot scheme, said: 

"If you are not taking drugs any more you don't want to get 

involved in the day-to-day drug environment. This place 

gives a guy a chance."



Mr McLeish said that the Scottish Prison Service chief 

executive would look at extending Shotts' pioneering work to 

other jails.



Meanwhile, the prisons' drugs chief would seek to share 

intelligence on drugs shipments and key figures in the drugs 

world with police and customs service, to reduce the amount 

of drugs getting behind bars.



Crucially, on the treatment side, the drugs chief would be 

encouraging more co-operation between drugs agencies outside 

prison and the services inside prison. The aim is to achieve 

throughcare, where an addict's treatment is disrupted as 

little as possible by the experience of going to prison and 

where former addicts get support straight after they leave 

jail.



Too many inmates get clean of drugs in the cloistered 

environment of prison only to relapse to their old ways when 

they return to their old haunts, or even die of overdose 

because their bodies are no longer acclimatised to purer 

street drugs.



Dave Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, 

welcomed the focus on throughcare, though he warned that the 

tougher approach might increase tensions in jails. There was 

a disturbance at Aberdeen prison last month after a 

crackdown on visitors carrying drugs.



"We would argue that steps should be taken to jail fewer 

people with drug related problems," said Mr Liddell.



He called for more drugs rehabilitation services in jails, 

to reflect the fact that at any one time up to one third of 

Scotland's problem drug users may be behind bars.