The introduction of a needle-exchange programme in prisons would improve safety conditions for both staff and prisoners, according to a panel of international experts on prison healthcare. Joe Humphreys reports.
In a report published in Dublin yesterday, the panel criticised the Government's opposition to the introduction of prison needle exchanges, claiming they would help reduce risk behaviour and disease transmission in prisons, as well as "make prisons safer places to live and work".
Mr Rick Lines, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), said "not one incident" of a syringe being used as a weapon was discovered in the six countries where exchange programmes had been introduced to date.
In fact, prison officers had reported a decrease in accidental needle pricks, which used to occur when people hid syringes under beds and sinks, creating a dangerous situation for prison officers who were carrying out searches.
Mr Lines co-wrote the report with a team of legal experts and medical professionals from four other countries.
The report, Prison Needle Exchange: Lessons from a Comprehensive Review of International Evidence and Experience, found the impact of prison needle-exchange programmes in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus to be "remarkably consistent".
"Improved prisoner health and reduction of needle-sharing have been achieved. Fears of violence, increased drug consumption and other negative consequences have not materialised," the report says.
"However, when it comes to the issue of needle exchange in prison, objective evidence has often proved secondary to political and ideological considerations, and public apathy toward issues faced by prisoners, prison staff and prison systems."
The IPRT, Merchants Quay Ireland and the Green Party each called on the Government yesterday to introduce a pilot needle-exchange programme in prisons.
Mr Tony Geoghegan, director of Merchants Quay Ireland, said the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Noel Ahern, should "set aside their difference on the issue and implement these vital programmes".
Mr McDowell, who is planning to introduce mandatory drug-testing in prisons early next year, said last month that Mr Ahern had contradicted Government policy by proposing the introduction of a prison needle-exchange programme.
