Source: Times The (UK) Author: Richard Ford, Home Correspondent Contact: http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Pubdate: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 PRISONS PLAN TO STERILISE NEEDLES FOR DRUG USERS PRISONS are planning to introduce a "clean needle" scheme to prevent the spread of hepatitis and HIV among drug-taking inmates. Joyce Quin, the Prisons Minister, is considering a pilot scheme in which sterilising equipment would be used on prison wings to cut the risk of spreading disease. Doctors are already permitted to prescribe condoms to inmates, to reduce the danger of infection among them. The need for cleaning equipment to be made available in jails is highlighted today in a report by Sir David Ramsbotham, the Chief Inspector of Prisons. He found that up to 30 prisoners were sharing one syringe and needle at Erlestoke House prison, near Devizes, Wiltshire. Sir David calls for urgent action by the Prison Service to address the problem. "There is a clear need for the Prison Service to reconsider the availability of cleaning equipment for needles to encourage harm reduction," he writes. The Chief Inspector says that clear guidance is needed about the issue of sterilising equipment to those at high risk from sharing needles. The proposal put to ministers would involve issuing a tablet containing disinfectant which prisoners could use to clean equipment. About 18 months ago tablets were withdrawn when it was discovered that there was a safety danger when inmates collected large numbers and burnt them to produce chlorine gas. In his report on Erlestoke House, Sir David says that substance abuse at the jail was a major problem. Evidence indicated that the use of injectable drugs was increasing. "Received intelligence showed very considerable sharing of injecting equipment, with up to 30 people sharing one syringe and needle," he says. "This was substantiated by the sizeable numbers of patients found to be infected with hepatitis C." Sir David outlines the difficulties facing prison officers who attempt to curb heroin abuse in the jail. "Unless prisoners are discovered in the act, this is an extremely difficult issue to tackle. Needles are almost always very carefully hidden, and destroyed when no longer required." He says that prisoners told his inspection team that drugs were brought into the jail by inmates working outside the prison or were thrown over the fence and collected in the grounds. Prisoners told Sir David that it was only the desperate who had drugs smuggled into them during visits from friends and family. In 1996, Ann Widdecombe, then Prisons Minister, became the first minister to admit publicly that medical officers in the Prison Service were permitted to dispense condoms.