The State's prison drug treatment services should be based at Mountjoy Prison, a report on treatment for drug abuse in prisons has recommended .
The first report of the steering group on prison-based drug treatment services said that since Mountjoy was no longer the main remand prison for the State, the rapid fall in inmate numbers presented a unique opportunity to refurbish the prison and to concentrate drug treatment services there.
The report, which has been submitted to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, also stated that if medical and other services in prisons were of the same order as in the wider community, the treatment needs of each prisoner would be met.
The report recommended that the opportunity which prison afforded for a drug dependent person to be treated should be vigorously availed of.
The report emphasised the need for through-care, to ensure prisoners recovering from drug dependency were transferred to a drug-free area in the prison, or to effective community-based treatment and support on release.
"There is a need to challenge and change the inmate culture in some of the prisons vis-a-vis drug misuse and promote effective ways of managing drug addicted prisoners," the report stated. "This involves the provision of different types of clinical and psycho-social methods of drug treatment, as well as the construction of regimes which would support such methods." The report noted that potential for lack of communication and fragmentation of services existed in all complex organisations. But, by addressing co-ordination, communication and multi-disciplinary issues, staff in all the State's prisons would have a greater appreciation of each other's work and a greater unity of purpose.
In support of the recommended suitability of Mountjoy Prison as a national prison drug treatment services centre, the report stated: "The blueprint for the new Mountjoy envisages the use of drug-free wings at the prison and the parallel designation of landings where methadone maintenance would be provided on an on-going basis". The Prisons Service had reached broad agreement with the Eastern Regional Health Authority on the number of additional staff needed for such a radical change at the prison, the report noted.
The report addressed the needs of Mountjoy, Dochas Centre (the female prison), St Patrick's Institution and Cloverhill Prison. It called for a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem of drug abuse in prison, with a "substantial" health authority input.
The majority of the costs involved would relate to salaries for the required posts, the report stated. It added that in order to support the implementation and refinement of the proposals, the steering group should continue to function for at least the next two years.
