Prison drug clampdown shows signs of working

22/10/05
The Gallop Government's war on drug use in the State's prison system appears to be having some success.
Justice Minister John D'Orazio said the message to prisoners and prison visitors was clear.
"Illegal drugs have no place in our prisons - if we find you with them, you will face the penalties," Mr D'Orazio said.
Today, 60 Department of Justice and WA Police officers, including drug dog teams, conducted unannounced drug checks on visitors and visitor vehicles at Hakea and Casuarina prisons.
"Stopping illegal drug use will make our jails safer for prison staff and may help some offenders break established habits," the Minister said.
"Our prisons staff are performing exceptionally well in the face of constant challenges.
"Anyone who thinks that it is a simple matter to keep jails drug free does not understand prisons, or offenders.
"We are conducting more tests on prisoners and more checks on their visitors and we are becoming more effective in detecting drugs.
"Our testing includes new prisoners and those on remand who may still have traces of drugs taken before entering jail."
Mr D'Orazio said that in the past six months, almost 3,500 tests had been conducted on prisoners across Western Australia.
He said new figures from the Department of Justice's offender management database showed the percentage of positive drug tests taken from randomly selected prisoners in the six months to September had halved, compared to the same period last year, and stood at less than 10 per cent.
Targeted testing of prisoners, such as those who appeared to be under the influence of drugs, and intelligence based searches for drugs and drug equipment had also increased.
"In 2004-05 we conducted more than 6,500 drug tests - a 50 per cent increase on the previous year," Mr D'Orazio said.
Today's exercise was only one of a range of strategies which included:

• more drug detection dogs at prisons - in the 12 months to October 2005, the canine team has searched about 56,000 visitors and 5,500 prisoners; and seized 400 items of contraband, such as drugs, syringes and weapons;
• doubling random drug testing at Hakea, Casuarina and Bandyup prisons, from twice a year to four times a year;
• constructing fences at Karnet and Wooroloo minimum security prisons, which will enable better management of prisoner movements and contraband;
• increasing behaviour changing programs for high-risk offenders - these were accessed by more than 130 prisoners in 2004-05; and
• establishing drug free units to support prisoners who want to remain drug free and to protect them from bullying or other pressures to participate in drug use.