Pubdate: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 Source: Prince Albert Daily Herald (CN SN) Copyright: 2003 Prince Albert Daily Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/princealbert/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1918 DRUG USE BY INMATES MUST BE CURBED Drug use is prison is a reality, but it might be more frustrating for people that the Correctional Service of Canada appears resigned to the fact that they can't stop it. With an estimated 80 per cent of people in federal penitentiaries in Canada already dealing with a drug or alcohol problem, it's hard to curb further substance abuse inside jails, said Tim Krause, the communication manager for the Prairie region of the Correctional Service of Canada. "The only way that you could stop it completely is if you had a prison on an island somewhere that had nobody coming and going into the institution," Krause said. "That's not the approach that we take with the Canadian penitentiary system given the fact that we want to have that community interaction." Inmates are finding creative and sometimes weird ways to get drugs into prisons to feed their habits. And perhaps that is where the problem really lies - the approach being taken to drug and alcohol addictions both in our prison system and in the rest of society. That's not a call for decriminalization. It is a call for doing more to help those addicted to drugs, and our prison system could be a perfect place to test procedures. Maybe all inmates should go through an intense detox program when they are first incarcerated. We should deal with both the physical and psychological addictions to drugs to stop the demand in the prison system. What is obvious is that the current plan doesn't work. Too many people in our correctional facilities are there because of an inability to control their addictions to drugs and alcohol - and the crimes they commit while drunk or high, or in order to get the substances to get drunk or high. If they can continue using those drugs and maintain that addiction while behind bars, what chance do they have of being rehabilitated and becoming productive members of society when they are released? The frustration those in charge of the facilities may have about drug use in the corrections system is understandable. However, more needs to be done to stop the problem or the system will fail not only those going through but also the public it is supposed to help protect. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin