Subj: Jails to take softer line on cannabis

Date: May 9, 1998

Source: The Independent

Jails to take softer line on cannabis

By Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent

Prison governors are to be urged to take a softer
line against prisoners using cannabis as part of a
new government strategy on drug use in prison.

Instead, more resources will be directed at
tackling heroin users by subjecting them to
repeated drug-testing and greater punishments.

The Independent has acquired a copy of the
23-page review document which forms the basis
for the new strategy, which will be announced on
Tuesday by drugs minister George Howarth.

Prison service officials have been concerned that
the large-scale use of mandatory drugs-testing has
led to thousands of drug-using inmates being
given up to 35 "extra days" on their sentence.
More than 16,500 prisoners - mostly cannabis
users - were given punishments of extra days in
the last financial year. This is equivalent to filling
one and a half jails for a year at a cost of over
£10m.

Governors are to be urged to "distinguish
between drug markets which generate the most
harm to individuals and prisoner safety and those
that are less damaging". They are advised to
"increase the differential" between punishments for
cannabis and for Class A drugs and to consider
alternative punishments such as loss of privileges
and restrictions on visits.

Both staff and prisoners indicated in the report
that they believe the system bears down too
heavily on cannabis users. It states that 82 per
cent of prisoners agreed with the statement:
"People should be able to smoke cannabis in
prison without fear of punishment."

The review adds that "more surprisingly perhaps,
interviews with wing officers revealed ambivalent
attitudes to reporting prisoners for smoking
cannabis". Some 44 per cent of staff agreed with
the statement: "Personal use of cannabis is not
detrimental to good order and discipline".

The review makes clear that drugs policies in
prison will fall into line with those recently
announced by "drugs tsar" Keith Hellawell for the
wider public. This means a shift in emphasis
towards improved drug treatment and education
in order to reduce demand.

The report carries some positive findings on the
extent of drug use in prison, which was running
out of control only two years ago. Positive drug
tests among prisoners have fallen from 34.6 per
cent in December 1995 to less than 20 per cent in
the early months of this year.

The mandatory random drug-testing programme,
which requires some 10 per cent of inmates to be
tested, is expensive. The review recommends that
governors reduce the amount of mandatory
testing and concentrate resources on inmateswho
have previously been found to misuse a Class A
drug.