The Minister for Justice is at it again. Secure and solid in his Government position for another two years, Michael McDowell is on the warpath this week to root out what he calls "moral fuzziness".
His current target is anyone (including colleague Noel Ahern) who advocates consideration of prison needle exchange programmes. Given the fact that this includes large sections of the civilised world, it is a case of everyone out of step but our Michael.
There is now detailed research which proves the effectiveness of harm-reduction strategies, principally clean needle exchange programmes, for drug users in prisons. Crucially, these studies show that making clean needles available in prisons reduces disease without increasing drug use. Extensive prison programmes of this kind are now in use throughout Spain, Germany and Switzerland.
The reason for such programmes is simple - they work. They are safer for prisoners, in that their exposure to diseases such as HIV and hepatitis is significantly reduced, as is the otherwise high incidence of abscess infection caused by the use of dirty and shared needles.
They are also safer for prison staff. A major cause of needle stick injuries and infection risk to prison officers has been the discovery of hidden needles during cell searches. Where needles no longer need to be concealed, and are sealed and properly disposed of, this risk is eliminated. Although prison staff in countries with a prison needle exchange scheme were initially resistant, they now perceive it as an important improvement for their own safety.
One major anxiety was that the increase in the availability of needles would make them more likely to be used as weapons against prison staff. The studies have conclusively shown, however, that this has not happened.
There are also obvious benefits to the wider community of reducing the incidence of infectious diseases within prisons. And in Ireland the figures are truly shocking. The National Advisory Committee on Drugs puts the incidence of hepatitis C in prisons as high as 90 per cent, over 100 times higher than in the non-prison population, with the rate of HIV infection over 10 times higher than outside.
Interestingly, none of the "morally fuzzy" countries which operate needle exchange programmes in prisons have a greater tolerance of drugs within their institutions. Proscribed substances remain banned, and are actively sought and confiscated when found. Rather, these countries consider that they are providing prisoners with the same opportunities to protect themselves against disease that are available to the rest of the population.
Needle exchange programmes have been available to drug addicts in the wider community in Ireland since 1992. They are a vital part of the Government's current National Drugs Strategy, and have proved effective in controlling the spread of disease, with not a shred of evidence that they have increased the incidence of drug abuse. Presumably, however, in the interests of logic, Michael McDowell would describe these community-based programmes as being just as "morally fuzzy" as any scheme which might become available to prisoners.
The principle that prisoners have a right to the same protection against disease as the wider community is a fundamental one. It is clearly articulated in any number of international conventions from the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. That it is a universally acknowledged right is actually endorsed by none other than Mr McDowell's own Department, which had a stated objective during the 1990s to "provide primary healthcare [prevention, treatment and health rehabilitation] to offenders of at least an equivalent standard to that available to citizens in the general community".
This clearly extends to the principle that addicts should not be denied harm reduction measures (such as needle exchanges) simply because they are in prison. Yet, once again, by Mr McDowell's logic, all of these conventions on the rights of prisoners, not to mention his Department, must be "morally fuzzy".
Surely the ultimate in moral fuzziness has to be the Government's own National Drugs Strategy. It lists 100 action steps to be taken to tackle drug abuse in Ireland. Number 62 identifies the need to ensure "access for all injecting drug misusers to sterile injecting equipment" (note the word "all"). The National Drugs Strategy does not distinguish between prisoners and non-prisoners in this regard. To do so would make Ireland an international pariah in terms of prisoners' rights.
It is important to point out that needle exchange programmes will not solve the enormous drug problems within prisons. They are only a part of what should be an integrated, joined-up policy providing a range of fully resourced treatments, drug-replacement therapies (still not available in most Irish prisons) and, crucially, drug-free sections of prisons, where inmates can safely become and remain drug free.
The chances of this happening under the aegis of a Minister who won't even permit the use of bleach or disinfectant for prisoners to clean their needles is remote.