Humane Drug-Free Prisons Impossible: Irish Minister
Drug-free prisons would be impossible in a humane prison system, the secretary general of the Irish Department of Justice has said. Seán Aylward, a former director of the Irish Prison Service, was addressing the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts last week. Story from the Irish Times.
Asked about aims, expressed most forcefully by former minister for justice Michael McDowell, for drug-free prisons, he said a prison system which eliminated “any drug use, at any time in any place would be a very cruel system”. “The complete elimination of drugs is not possible in a humane prison system. It would mean total isolation of prisoners, no visitors at all and a roof over the exercise yard – no fresh air.” Smuggling contraband into the prisons entailed “covert behaviours with minute quantities”. He said prisoners found it more difficult to get drugs in prison than outside and that the supply was intermittent.
The director general of the Prison Service, Brian Purcell, said just under 25 per cent of the prison population of 3,900 were active drug users, while over 80 per cent had experience of using drugs. The service had had success in reducing the supply of drugs into prisons, using sniffer dogs and security screening of visitors. “To date in 2009 we have had 700 drug seizures within the system. You’re not going to stop drugs altogether.”
He also said a methadone maintenance programme, currently only available in Mountjoy Prison, would be available in Castlerea next month and in Cork Prison by the end of the year. “It’s a growing need, but I suppose the services we provide in terms of methadone reflect what the HSE [Health Service Executive] is providing out in the community.” There was little point offering methadone maintenance programmes to prisoners if upon their release there was no service available in the community, he added. “We are now at the stage in Cork where we feel there are services in the community.”
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