Almost 20% of prisoners in Irish jails test positive for drugs, figures show

The Irish Prison Service said it had conducted 1,883 tests on prisoners under its operational testing programme, with 353 of those returning a positive result.

Nearly one in five operational drug tests carried out in Irish prisons last year were positive, with inmates tested for opiates, cocaine, cannabis, and other narcotics.

However, the Irish Prison Service said it had conducted just 1,883 tests on prisoners under its operational testing programme, with 353 of those returning a positive result.

It said it had begun this year to "re-energise" a full programme of random and intelligence-led operational drug testing, with weekly targets set for each jail.

An analysis of figures shows nearly 45% of the testing last year took place at a single prison, Shelton Abbey Open Centre in Co Wicklow, a facility for prisoners considered to present a low risk.

The Irish Prison Service said 834 tests had been carried out at Shelton Abbey, with 44 of them returning a positive result.

The next highest level of operational testing was at the Midlands Prison in Co Laois, where 476 tests were conducted and 145 of them showed the presence of drugs.

In Cork Prison, 222 tests took place in total and 48 of them were positive.

The highest fail rate on drug tests was at high-security Portlaoise Prison, where almost 60% of the tests carried out came up positive.

HSE tests

Under a separate stream of testing conducted by healthcare teams, about 800 other tests were carried out, figures released under Freedom of Information legislation showed.

At the Midlands Prison, 296 tests took place, with about a third of them found to have traces of opioids like heroin.

Other drugs discovered during the healthcare tests were cocaine and cannabis, with positive results also for commonly prescribed medications like sedatives, sleeping tablets, and methadone.

The positivity rate for opiates at some prisons in tests sent to the HSE lab was extremely low.

At Cloverhill Remand Prison in Dublin, 312 of the 315 samples sent out came back negative for opioids, with two positives for cocaine and 25 for cannabis.

In Castlerea in Co Roscommon, there were just two positive opiate tests from 64 samples, along with a further two for cocaine and eight for cannabis.

Asked about the figures, a spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said preventing access of contraband to jails continued to be a “high priority”.

He said: “It is estimated that up to 70% of the prisoner population have addiction issues. Those with active addiction continue their drug-seeking behaviour inside prison notwithstanding the supports [available].” 

The spokesman said a much higher level of testing would take place this year, with 150 prison staff having completed training with a new supplier and specific minimum targets being set for each jail.

He said new on-site drug testing would allow for instant results and the Irish Prison Service was also keeping a close watch on “the emerging trend towards the availability of more harmful synthetic drugs”.