THE GOVERNMENT'S policy to make prisons drug-free has dramatically failed to reduce substance abuse in Irish jails and has led to an increase in intimidation and violence, according to a new report.
A research paper by Drug Policy Action Group, a non-governmental organisation, says widespread drug abuse in prisons is making it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure, safe and law-abiding prison system.
It says Government policies that rely on security measures targeting the supply of drugs are inadvertently increasing the level of drug-related intimidation and violence.
"The current enormous prison drugs problem is the legacy in part of unrealistic expectations of law enforcement and imprisonment as the main response to drug use," the report says.
Data published in The Irish Timesearlier this year showed inmates in the Republic's prisons tested positive for drugs 40,000 times over the past three years, with detection rates of up to 75 per cent in some jails.
Seán Cassin of the Drug Policy Action Group said yesterday that major changes were needed to reform the "repressive regime" of the prison system if drug use was to be tackled.
He also said Government plans to build a new prison complex at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin would exacerbate the problem.
"This will be a modern replication of the Victorian monstrosity that is Mountjoy Prison. Because of the large numbers, the total reliance on prison officers and the lack of any capacity to deal with drug-free recovery, it can only worsen," he said.
However, this view was rejected by the director general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, who said new facilities would be purpose-built to help address drug abuse. He said the Thornton Hall plan was based around a campusstyle development containing eight practically self-contained facilities, each with its own rehabilitative programmes and recreation areas.
On the issue of the numbers of prisoners testing positive for drugs, Mr Purcell said the figures should not be seen as an indicator of drug misuse across the wider prisoner population as they include between 450 and 500 inmates on supervised methadone maintenance.