Thursday, 20 May, 2004

Alexander: Best place to get drugs? In prisons!!

Up to a third of prison inmates in some prisons are likely stoned as Corrections Minister Paul Swain runs around putting a positive spin on the fast-sinking Corrections Department, United Future's Marc Alexander said today.

Citing recent Corrections figures on positive prison drug tests last year, Mr Alexander said Mr Swain's incessant defence of the State system was becoming a credibility issue for the Government and Corrections.

Random drug testing in a number of prisons showed on average positive tests for one in five prisoners between July and December last year, including Wanganui (34%), New Plymouth (33%), Manawatu (31%), Christchurch Men's (25%), Waikeria (21%), Mt Eden Men's (20%), and Hawke's Bay (20%) prisons. The average number of positive tests across all prisons in 2003 was 17.8%. Some prisons seem to have a chronic problem, with the figures for Wanganui, Manawatu, Christchurch Men's and Waikeria prisons all higher than they were in 2000.

Cannabis showed up in the tests most often, followed by amphetamines, opiates, benzodiazepines and methadone. "What this shows is the abject failure of the State to run the prison system at the very same time as it is closing the most well-run prison in the country," Mr Alexander, who has led the battle to retain the privately managed Auckland Central Remand Prison, said.

"This prison should be kept running as it is on the basis of its superior performance to State facilities in virtually every area. That is beyond dispute.

"We're talking hard facts against the Government's soft ideology," he said.

Ends.