Welcome to The Irish Needle Exchange Forum
The INEF exists to actively develop, support, and sustain a network of high quality, comprehensive needle exchange and other harm reduction services across Ireland.
-
Report highlights ‘drugs problem’ at HMP Durham
Posted on March 26th, 2010 No commentsDrug abuse continues to be a serious problem at one of the North East’s prisons, inspectors have concluded.
One in four inmates at HMP Durham is using illicit drugs, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons said following an unannounced visit in October. Arrangements for prisoners on the heroin substitute methadone are also “unsatisfactory” said the report.
-
Australia Jails ‘a source’ of blood-borne diseases
Posted on March 18th, 2010 No commentsAustralia’s jails are a major source of new blood-borne infection, a harm reduction group says in a call for a controlled needle exchange for inmates. Bans on prisoners possessing drugs and syringes have failed to stop their now commonplace use behind prison walls, says The Association for Prevention and Harm Reduction Programs Australia (Anex).
-
1,290 drug seizures in jails last year
Posted on February 8th, 2010 No commentsPledges by the Government to remove the scourge of drugs from jails have been ridiculed with figures revealing there were 1,293 drug seizures in prisons last year.
Almost half the drug finds and seizures were made in Mountjoy Prison, the country’s largest jail.
Read the rest of this entry » -
Under the Skin: A People’s Case for Prison Needle and Syringe Programs
Posted on February 2nd, 2010 No commentsWhat do people in prison have to say about the Canadian government’s unwillingness to permit the distribution of clean needles in prison? How has this policy, that denies the realities of injection drug use in prison, affected individuals who are struggling with drug addiction? And what does this mean for the community as a whole? The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network sought to answer these and many other questions by interviewing people from across the country to learn more about their experiences with injection drug use in federal prisons.
Read the rest of this entry » -
Letters from Prison
Posted on January 11th, 2010 No commentsThis incredibly moving short film reveals what life is really like behind bars through a series of letters received by the filmmaker from his incarcerated friends over a period of three years.
-
Shane Phelan: Drug-free jails impossible unless regime is inhuman
Posted on December 28th, 2009 No commentsBack in 2004 the then Justice Minister Michael McDowell declared that drugs in prisons would no longer be tolerated.
He said drug-free units within jails were not sufficient and that his aim was to take swift action to make prisons completely drug free within 18 months.
The former PD leader lashed out at those who criticised the practicality of his plans for what he termed their “moral fuzziness”.
Five years on, Mr McDowell may have been dumped out of office and his prison plans well behind schedule, but the current Government remains committed to implementing his vision.
The Department of Justice said last weekend there had been “no divergence at any level of Government on the commitment to work towards drug-free prisons”.
-
Methadone in prison is the best practice
Posted on December 15th, 2009 No commentsThe provision of methadone in prisons is considered best practice by esteemed national and international expert bodies
While she characterises prison as “an ideal opportunity to wean people off drugs”, she expresses outrage that apparently 20,000 prisoners “were put on methadone in jail as a form of detox”. As the purpose of detox is to medically reduce a person’s opiate intake to the point of stopping, the reason for her objections are a mystery, unless she prefers that drug users go through the painful and often life-threatening symptoms of “cold turkey” withdrawal rather than being medically assisted in detoxifying.
-
Courthouses close to criminal cases
Posted on December 13th, 2009 No commentsAs the Bridewell on Chancery Street and the Special Criminal Court on Green Street close to criminal cases, thoughts turn to the trials prosecuted there and the people who took part
This week Dublion District Court starts hearing criminal cases in the new Criminal Court Complex at Phoenix Park. On December 18th the Special Criminal Court hears its last criminal case, and next month will sit in the new building. This means that over the next two weeks the Bridewell courthouse on Chancery Street at the back of the Four Courts, and the Special Criminal Court on Green Street, will both close for criminal cases, bringing to an end two eras in Irish criminal justice, though the High Court will sit in them.
-
The Big Question: Is methadone being over-prescribed as a treatment for drug addiction?
Posted on December 11th, 2009 No commentsWhy are we asking this now?
A dispute has erupted over the treatment of drug addicts in prisons. According to the former government drugs tsar, Mike Trace, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health are battling to impose their differing approaches. The Ministry of Justice is said to favour pushing addicts towards abstinence, while the Department of Health is understood to back the “maintenance” prescribing of methadone to keep addicts stable.
-
A substitute for prison drugs policy?
Posted on December 9th, 2009 No commentsOne of the government’s former drug “tsars” has told me how a battle between two Whitehall departments is undermining efforts to get prisoners off heroin. Mike Trace who currently heads a charity which runs drug rehab programmes in jails, says the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health are “fighting each other about who runs treatment in prisons”.
Social Networking
Partners
