Madam, - The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, accuses those calling for the provision of sterile syringes to injecting, drug-using prisoners of "moral fuzziness" (The Irish Times, September 29th).
Those of us who support prison syringe exchange programmes do so because they save lives; reduce the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C among prisoners (and therefore the public); reduce drug overdoses in prisons; increase the referral of prisoners into drug treatment programmes; increase staff safety and security; and reduce the costs of prison health care.
These are the indisputable facts learned from more than 50 prisons in six countries offering these effective programmes, many of which I have visited and seen for myself.
Mr McDowell must certainly operate by a unique moral compass to find such outcomes objectionable. - Yours, etc.,
RICK LINES, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust, Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 4.