How do we stop drugs getting into prison?

It was Michael Howard, then Conservative Home Secretary, who declared that, “Prison works.” His critics would suggest it only works in turning the ingénue convict into the hardened criminal. This is compounded by a prison culture where drug abuse is rife within the supposedly secure confines of the penitentiary.
Huseyin Djemil, a former head of drug treatment policy for the National Offender Management Service, which oversees prisons and the probation service, estimates that roughly half the prison population are addicts at any one time, a scale underestimated by the Prison Service. A BBC investigation in 2008 found that the main supply routes were: ‘drops’ thrown over exterior walls; clandestinely handovers during visits; and even via complicit prison officers.
Government measures are reactive, inadequate and potentially dangerous. As Jenny McCartney says, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s recent ban on send-in parcels appealed “more to populist prejudice than practical common sense.” It symbolised the ineffective official response. Mandatory Drug Testing (MDT), the government flagship drug control programme, where prisoners are tested on a random basis is far more serious in fostering complacency. The statistics are prone to manipulation and testing regimes are predictable while it encourages Class A drug use as these opiates do not stay in the system as long as lesser-strength drugs such as cannabis. The Scottish authorities have already abandoned MDTs in response to these concerns and the belief that it discouraged take-up of drug treatment programmes. Other deterrent measures such as CCTV and ‘drug dogs’ have their limitations too and prisons are notorious for not sharing information with other agencies.
Djemil proposes a whole new strategy that is intelligence-led but in the form of analysing market trends and characteristics, such as the number of prisoners using drugs in prison, the size of the prison drugs market or the price of drugs in prison – information not currently available – and understanding the system that underpins the market e.g. drug storage, payment mechanisms and sales methods – receiving little or no attention at the moment. To identify and disrupt the market, Djemil argues that good intelligence based on this new approach “would allow the targeted allocation of resources in order of priority.”
Political will in determining to eradicate drugs rather than just ‘manage’ the problem is essential, as is resisting media pressure in abandoning ‘follow the drug’ policy, which is throwing good money after bad as current systems fail. Implementation of the National Intelligence Model (NIM) would professionalise and improve intelligence work across the law enforcement agencies and to enable the compilation of standardised intelligence products. It should be of the utmost value of the Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and ministers need to champion and resource this. The recruitment of experts who are skilled in data capture and intelligence systems would build the competence and confidence of prison staff. Finally, all drug treatment strategies need to have the ultimate aim of helping prisoners move away from addiction altogether. Then prison really would work.