Minister urged to extend pilot drug-free scheme

One in two prisoners who came off drugs in the State's largest prison stayed clean in the drug-free training unit, according to the Prison Officers' Association.

The POA president, Mr Michael Lawton, called on the Government to extend the pilot detox programme in Dublin's Mountjoy to other prisons and to introduce proper drug-free places for former addicts.

"Of the 78 prisoners who successfully completed the detox programme, 52 per cent continued to remain drug-free while in the training unit," Mr Lawton told the POA conference.

However, with more than 90 prisoners in the unit, it was difficult to train prisoners, rather than just keep them drug-free. He said prisoners could be offered reductions in their sentences, parole or other privileges as an inducement to get off drugs.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said lessons could be learnt from the Mountjoy programme. He would "make absolutely certain that we have a drug-free prison at Cloverhill". This 400-place remand prison beside Wheatfield prison in Dublin is due to be completed by the end of the year.

Prisoners could be physically separated from visitors, Mr O'Donoghue said, and there would be more cameras for monitoring visits. "I'm prepared to listen carefully to the views of governors," Mr O'Donoghue said. Mr Lawton called on the Government to refurbish Mountjoy prison or shut it down. It was unacceptable that prisoners were still slopping out, and he suggested the POA might take industrial action in response to the chronic overcrowding and conditions there.

Mr O'Donoghue said the overcrowding of the prison in the last six months meant refurbishment had been "made more difficult for us". The opening of Cloverhill could remove remand prisoners from Mountjoy and allow for its refurbishment.

However, Mr O'Donoghue said the Government would implement the new bail laws once prison spaces became available.

"I have been unable to implement the bail referendum for the very simple reason that we didn't have sufficient space." It would be implemented "at the earliest available date".

This would place "additional pressure on the system", Mr O'Donoghue said, and there was no "scientific basis for determining how many remand prisoners will be coming into the system as a direct result of the bail referendum."

The setting up of a prisons board was "some months away", Mr O'Donoghue said. "It is not my intention to have representation from the POA on the management board of the prisons," he added.

The Department was examining the idea of an inspector of prisons, and Mr O'Donoghue said there was no intention to do away with the visiting committees. "They do an excellent job, no matter who they're appointed by," he said.