Subj: Scotland: Prisoners made drugs pipes in pottery class



Date: 19 May 1999



Source: Scotsman, The  (UK)



  

Prisoners made drugs pipes in pottery class

STEPHEN RAFFERTY Crime Correspondent  





PRISONERS who attended pottery classes in a top-security 

jail have been caught making pipes which they used to smoke 

cannabis.



The matter came to light only after an inmate, a first 

offender, asked for permission to hand over one of the pipes 

to a friend during a supervised visit.



Staff at Saughton prison in Edinburgh realised that the 

object, about four inches long and in the shape of a fish, 

had been made at the jail.



On questioning the inmate, he admitted that 

prisonersattending pottery classes at the jail's education 

block were modelling, painting and glazing the hash pipes on 

a regular basis.



Security staff carried out a search and two more pipes were 

discovered in a kiln, ready for firing. But even then, 

education staff failed to appreciate the gravity of the 

matter in allowing prisoners to make ceramics designed for 

smoking illegal drugs.



A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said that 

educational services at the jail were contracted out to 

Falkirk College and confirmed that an instructor had been 

spoken to about theappropriateness of allowing hash pipes to 

be modelled in the pottery class.



The prisoner who gave the game away was a first offender in 

the jail's Forth Hall and naively thought he could hand over 

the pipe to a friend if he got permission from a member of 

staff.



A jail source said: "When the prisoner was asked where he 

got the pipe he said there were lots of them in the 

education department. The security office went ballistic and 

searched the place.



"The pipe was painted and glazed and in the shape of a fish. 

It had a little bowl and there was a hollow where the fish's 

tail would be.



"It was the first time this guy had been inside and he was a 

bit foolish, to say the least, but, more worrying than that, 

the education staff didn't see the harm in it and didn't 

view it as a problem that prisoners were making hash pipes 

inside a jail."



Last night, the Conservative law and order spokeswoman, 

Lyndsay McIntosh MSP, and the Tory MSP Phil Gallie called 

for more strict monitoring of prisoners' activities at 

Saughton.



Mrs McIntosh said: "I am concerned that staff did not 

appreciate this pipe would be used for an illicit purpose.



"One would have hoped people serving in a penal institution 

would recognise that it is supposed to be drugs free and 

recognise the apparatus that inmates might use or abuse.



"People are in there for punishment, they are not in there 

to refine their habits. This pipe sounds most attractive as 

a collector's item, but not to be collected in prison."



Mr Gallie, the list MSP for the South of Scotland, said: 

"The education department should be asked if they were aware 

of the purpose these instruments could be put to use for, 

and if they were aware, then their contract should be 

terminated immediately.



"As far as prison staff are concerned, Saughton prison is to 

the forefront of drugs education in prisons and I find it 

hard to understand why staff did not become aware of this.



"The prison governor should be inquiring into this matter 

and taking the appropriate steps to ensure there is 

no repeat."



A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "We will 

be telling the instructor that this is obviously 

inappropriate and to keep a closer eye on these sort of 

activities in the future.



"It was a member of staff who had not been in the education 

unit particularly long and she was encouraging creativity 

more than anything else.



"Security staff will be reminding her of the appropriateness 

of what prisoners should be allowed to make. There are 

regular cells searches carried out and if any are found they 

will be confiscated."