Prison drugs bill soars to €820 per inmate

THE prison bill for drugs such as anti-psychotics and sedatives jumped massively last year - with the average prisoner consuming €820 worth of pharmaceuticals in 2003.

The expenditure was highest in the women’s prison, the Dóchas Centre, where the average annual bill was over €2,000.

The Prison Service annual report for 2003 also expressed serious concern at the falling numbers of sex offenders undergoing treatment.

It said offenders were ignoring the scheme because there was no incentive - such as early release - to do so.

The report said the average cost per prisoner of pharmaceuticals was €821 in 2003, ranging from €240 to €2,020.

“This is considerably higher than the corresponding figure from other prison services, and significantly higher than that for a similar population in the community.”

The report said there was “a need for detailed ongoing review” of this expenditure, which totalled €2.6 million in 2003.

A high proportion of the money was spent on anti-psychotics, anti-depressants and sedatives as well as drugs used to treat addiction.

The report said there were still no pharmacists working on site in the prisons and that the service was coordinated centrally at prison service headquarters.

Prison authorities said that “due to low take-up” there was only one sex offender programme in operation in 2003.

It said the programme ran in Arbour Hill in Dublin, but that there was none in the Curragh Place of Detention in Kildare.

The Curragh, which is now closed, housed 98 prisoners in 2003, the vast majority of whom were sex offenders.

“The low numbers of suitably motivated offenders coming forward for the sex offender programme is a cause for concern,” said the report.

It said factors included:

Lack of sufficient personal motivation on the part of offenders.

Limited resources for one-to-one work with offenders.

Absence of outside incentives for participation.

This includes the lack of possible early supervised release for taking part and successfully completing the sex offender programme.

The report said the two programmes were supposed to be rolled out throughout the prison service under plans finished in 2003.

It said that if this is to happen, or if the Arbour Hill programme is to be maintained, that the factors limiting participation would have to be “addressed as a matter of priority.”

The report said that 2,520 non-nationals were committed to prison in 2003, representing 26% of all committals, compared to 21% in 2002 and 18% in 2001.

More than 1,850 were detained under immigration laws. There were nine deaths in custody - including two suicides and three drug overdoses.