Madam - On June 22nd, Michael McDowell described the Irish Penal Reform Trust's (IPRT) support for an evidence-based prison drugs policy as "Alice in Wonderland politics". Yet even the briefest peek "through the looking glass" reveals that the Minister's plans repeat the failures of other countries while avoiding their successes.
For this reason, the IPRT has consistently opposed the introduction of mandatory drug testing because the international evidence shows that such testing increases heroin use among prisoners, increases drug injecting and the risk of HIV and hepatitis C transmission through shared syringes, reduces the uptake of voluntary drug treatment by prisoners, and wastes money that could be better spent on more effective drug programmes.
We have also consistently supported the provision of sterile syringes to prisoners as one component of a comprehensive drugs policy because the international evidence shows that these programmes save lives, reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among prisoners (and therefore the public), reduce drug overdoses, increase the referral of prisoners into drug treatment programmes, increase staff safety and security, and reduce the costs of prison healthcare.
Perhaps the IPRT's expectation that prison drugs programmes should actually achieve positive results is "Alice in Wonderland politics".
But it is certainly preferable to the Mad Hatter politics currently in vogue at the Department of Justice. - Yours, etc,
RICK LINES, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust, Dublin 1.