Reformers call for jail clean needle plan

PENAL reformers yesterday told UN drug chiefs that clean needles should be made available in prisons to cut the spread of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) was invited to give a presentation on the matter to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at their office in Vienna, Austria.

Rick Lines of the IPRT said the provision of clean syringes by prison management to prisoners reduced the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, which were rampant in many prisons.

Research published last year by the European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) showed that 80% of injecting drug users in Ireland had hepatitis C the highest in the EU.

The EMCDDA report linked the sharing of syringes with the scarcity of injecting equipment within prisons.

Mr Lines told the UNODC that a recent review of evaluated prison exchange programmes in Switzerland, Germany and Spain found that syringe sharing was "strongly reduced" in seven of nine prisons surveyed.

He said safety concerns was one of the reasons why countries refused to give out syringes. But he said international research showed that needles were not used as weapons either against prison staff or other prisoners.

Prisoners had a right to healthcare equivalent to that available in the outside community, citing the UN Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, said Mr Lines.

He said the World Health Organisation recommended that where clean syringes are provided in the community as in Ireland that consideration should be given to dispensing them in prisons.

Mr Lines said research in those countries where syringes were available in prisons showed there was a dramatic decrease in fatal and non-fatal heroin overdoses.

He said prison syringe programmes did not increase drug use or injecting among drug users.

At this month's annual conference of the Prison Officers' Association, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said he was opposed to syringe exchange programmes or providing bleach to clean needles.

Instead he announced a "zero tolerance" plan involving mandatory drug testing, screened visits for drug users, isolation of drug users from the rest of the prisoners as well as possible further charges for those testing positive. Both the IPRT and Merchants Quay Ireland the country's largest voluntary drug service criticised the plan.