Madam, - In recent years, as a practising psychiatrist, I have treated a large number of prison officers who have been threatened with, or sustained, a needle-stick injury in the line of duty at the hands of drug-addicted prisoners.
These officers all agree that, in their view, at least 80 per cent of newly convicted, non-addicted prisoners emerge from prison as addicts, and possibly infected with HIV or hepatitis C. If this is true, then it is clear that prisons, rather than being centres of rehabilitation, are breeding grounds for a multiplicity of secondary problems in addition to the original offence. Such problems are visited on our communities on their release.
Judges considering sentencing must consider the collateral damage, such as the development of a drug addiction, over and above the obvious effects of incarceration. The Constitution enshrines the human rights of all, prisoners included, to "the right to bodily integrity".
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, deserves unequivocal support in his attempts to rid our prisons of drug use. - Yours, etc.,
Dr MICHAEL CORRY, Consultant Psychiatrist, Clara Vale, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.