One in seven inmates fail drug test
Illegal drugs are still getting into Lincoln Prison – with one in seven prisoners failing routine testing.
And this follows a clampdown and a subsequent reduction in the number of drugs brought into the men's prison in Greetwell Road.
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Lincoln Prison.
A request submitted to the Ministry of Justice by the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that 99 prisoners tested positive for drugs out of 514 routinely tested in 2007/8 – almost one in five.
But governor Michael Wood said a zero tolerance attitude to drugs has resulted in 15 per cent of prisoners now failing mandatory drugs tests, in line with the national average.
"We mirror the whole community and have prisoners coming in with a dreadful drug habit," he said.
"But on the outside they don't access GPs but in prison we can do something positive for them in terms of a detox programme."
Mr Wood said a quantity of drugs with a street value of £10 would be worth £50 in jail due to the demand.
The drugs tend to be smuggled in by family and friends visiting but this is getting harder.
"We work closely with the police and instantly arrest anyone coming in with drugs," said Mr Wood.
"If a prisoner is caught with drugs an independent adjudication judge will come in and add days to their sentence.
"And if the police consider it to be a large amount of drugs they will do them for intent to supply.
"There is a never ending battle to tackle the problem of drugs inside prison just as there is outside.
"We're no different to local schools, pubs or nightclubs."
For the full story see Saturday's Lincolnshire Echo.
3 Comments
by Mr smith, lincoln
Sunday, March 01 2009, 2:05PM
“Its a disgusting statistic,They should have separated visiting areas like they do in america and prevent them from any physical contact with their visitors,plus their visitors should be prosecuted severely if caught smuggling anything in.”
by I don`t get it...., ....Or do I??
Saturday, February 28 2009, 10:58AM
“"We're no different to local schools, pubs or nightclubs."
And if you treat the place like that what should we expect??
It`s a PRISON Woody!!!
If it was truly zero tolerance then surely the figure would be zero.? Or closer to it than it is.
Still I suppose a certain amount keeps them quiet eh??”
by W.Wilkins, Lincoln
Saturday, February 28 2009, 9:32AM
“If 1 in 7 are failing drug tests someone,s not doing a very good job are they, and thats either the prison officers or the governor or probably both. But with the overcrowding conditions and different other factors taken into consideration its easy to see why prisoners feel the need to take drugs. If the prison cant stop drugs getting in, then its not doing a very good job because when the same prisoners taking drugs get out, its just back to square one again. In my opinion the prison warders and this Michael Wood need to do more to address the problem.”