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[NEWS] Drugs trials needle jailers

poledriver

poledriver

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Joined
Jul 21, 2005
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PRISON officers are in revolt against a potentially deadly proposal for drug needle-exchange programs, saying they will not work in jails if it goes ahead.

Liberal campaign director Mark Neeham told a prisoners' group it will consider a needle-exchange scheme in jails, prompting alarm by officers, one of whom died of AIDS after being stabbed by an inmate with a syringe.

Mr Neeham told the Community Justice Coalition in response to their push for a needle-exchange program: "We will consider supporting the trial of a needle and syringe program in appropriate correctional facilities with independent outcomes of the evaluation of any such trial."

The officers will today launch a campaign at their state conference in Sydney in an effort to force the government to kill off the proposal.

The Prison Officers Branch of the Public Services Association says needle-exchange schemes are being considered in jails across Australia.

The officers say this would pose a clear risk to the health and safety of prison officers.

Prison officer Geoff Pearce died following a needle stick attack at Long Bay jail, where an inmate stabbed him with a syringe full of infected blood. Guard Matt Bindley, also chairman of the Prison Officers Branch at the Public Services Association, said it was unacceptable the government would put prison officers at increased risk.

"Every single day prison officers deal with real-life criminals, the worst people society has to offer, and they come face to face with the harsh realities of the world inside our prisons," he said.

"Yet our government has said they will consider making this tough job even harder by introducing a needle-exchange program.

"Giving needles to prisoners makes it easier for such attacks to occur and increases the chance of prisoner officers contracting deadly diseases such as HIV or hepatitis.

"The lives of prison officers are too valuable to put them at this sort of risk and our government should be respecting their hard work rather than making it harder.

"Making it even worse, prisoner officers don't know which inmates are HIV positive or suffer from other (infectious) diseases.

"They are taught to treat every single inmate as being infected by such diseases.

"It's outrageous our government considers the safety of our prison guards so insignificant that they would expose these staff to the increased risks such a program represents."
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here
 
What a load of crap, they are in jail, they shouldnt be given the right to get their high. Fk this government, im a citizen who hasnt broken any major laws, productive and pay my fkin taxes, and feed these skumbags either in prison or on centrelink.....and I break the law when I buy my drug of choice to get my high, also govt killing quality of drugs n making pills so crappy....

BULLSHIT!!!!
 
^did your brain explode grugz? Prison-based NSP works well elsewhere and would plug a major gap in our public health response to blood borne viruses. Have a read of the various linked information on the Anex website here

And take a chill pill :)

Although I agree with you about the retractables - mainly because they are crap. They give a little blood spray when the retractable mechanism is activated - so absolutely counter-productive as a BBV prevention method.
 
If this program could be regulated effectively then it's a fantastic idea and would hopefully reduce the incidence of blood borne infections among injecting prisoners.

grugz - This is real HR in action and should be supported every step of the way whilst also taking into account the safety of prison officers.
 
grugz said:
What a load of crap, they are in jail, they shouldnt be given the right to get their high.....and I break the law when I buy my drug of choice to get my high
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There's many people in jail because of the same drug laws that you yourself choose to break...

Regardless of whether you think they should or shouldn't have the right to get high, they do, and not having clean needles just guarantees the spread of disease. I'm not sure how they can get around the safety issue though.

*If you ever get locked up, try and smuggle a clean needle in. They command the highest price of anything in jail.
 
It's a tricky situation, certainly. I'm usually all for harm reduction, but I think the prison workers have a very valid complaint about the use of needles as weapons.

Of course I think the fact that we even need to debate the concept of needle exchanges inside prisons goes to show just how futile the whole 'war on drugs' is...
 
It would come down to a regulation issue of sorts and could be rectified with an in house injecting centre if you will. The obvious issues associated with this would be prison officers using attendance by prisoners as an intelligence gathering tool to pin point drug use and supply channels. The process of a one to one exchange is fraught with danger for prison officials and I imagine would be fought tooth and nail which would therefore be bound to fail.

I have no doubt that if this is being seriouslt considered then working groups would be in the process of developing the best solution for all involved. Needless to say, it can only be a good thing that it's being considered.
 
Yeah I thought about an on-site injection centre, but came to the same conclusion, prisoners wouldn't be willing to use it because it would betray drug supply intel to the guards.
 
yeh but its a prison, not a retreat camp.... there are programs to get them off drugs, they probs got thrown into jail because of tryin to feed their addiction. they most likely admited that addiction to get a smaller sentance by taking on a drug rehab program, which is avaliable to them in jails....therefore i dont see why giving out needles should do but make problem worse... more like, oh look they are even giving us clean needles to get high.....

Look if all of us on here can handle our addictions/drug of choice without getting thrown into jail, i dont see why they cant-> if not realise they are in alot of hot water and help themselves by goin on a program

yes my brain did explode.... so much for punishment, my taxes go to housing them in jail, their foxtel, aircon food etc and then centrelink outside.....
 
I am honestly flabbergasted at your ineptitude surrounding this issue and don't really know where to begin, or even if I should waste my time formulating a decent response. I will, however, try my best to cover just some points that may allow you to loosen those blinkers.

No one, ever, takes a drug with the intention of becoming an addict. I can assure you that at one stage or another every prisoner that is an IDU was able to 'handle' their drug use before it led to addiction - much like yourself it seems. The inference that every prisoner who is an IDU is incarcerated because of their drug use would be a far stretch but, for the purpose of this argument, we will assume that this the case. These individuals had everything on offer to them on the outside - including access to drug treatment programs - but they may not have attempted to take them up for one reason or another. One would think that with all of life's luxuries at their fingertips there would be less reason to use drugs but they continued to do so at the detriment to their continuing freedom. Now, for just one second I want you to empathise, not sympathise, with these individuals who have access to limited luxuries, no freedom and being surrounded by the worst of the worst society has to offer. I wonder then, if you would seek out some type of escape from the reality through the use of drugs???

A second point of note would then be the taxes you pay to house these prisoners. Hmmmmm, now I wonder what type of money the government would save by not having to treat these incarcerated IDU's for blood borne viruses like hepatitis and HIV - the costs are massive in case you didn't know. But then you say, well fuck them, that's their choice if they want to risk contracting one of those viruses when it's so well known..... Yeah, I guess it is their choice to continue injecting (taking addiction out of the picture), however, prison doesn't last forever now does it???? These individuals will eventually be released back into the community - a good percentage infected with at least one nasty virus - and rates of infection on the outside increase as a result. Now I wonder if you can see the importance of NSP's in and out of prisons.

If you're so worried about where your tax dollar is going then think about the money actually saved through the introduction of these initiatives. The social costs associated with treatment of blood borne infections and associated disease is massive. No matter what, these individuals are going to use drugs and providing them with clean needles isn't going to make the problem worse, because it's already as bad as it's going to get!!!!

Lets try and remember the basics of Harm Minimisation - Supply Reduction, Demand Reduction and Harm Reduction
 
Another +1 to angel. Totally disagree with you grugz bro.. while you're entitled to your beliefs, they sound ignorant, bigoted, and dangerous :\
 
grugz said:
Sry lil angel I dont support it no matter what you say, I just somehow lost my reply n cbf retyping it
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It's truly upsetting that an individual who partakes in illicit drug use and participates on a supposed HR forum can not see the benefits associated with NSPs. :(

I only hope you, or any of your loved ones, never enter the cycle of addiction and require these valuable services - in or out of jail!!!
 
Awesome post Lil. If that is the view of someone on BL, it's scary to think about the opinions of the general Australian population.

grugz said:
Look if all of us on here can handle our addictions/drug of choice without getting thrown into jail, i dont see why they cant-> if not realise they are in alot of hot water and help themselves by goin on a program
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I think you're really drawing too much of a distinction between 'prisoners' and 'you'. Anyone who has done drugs is free only by luck, to a greater or lesser degree. No matter how careful you are, it only takes someone who knows you to roll (and sadly this happens a lot more than you'd think), or a spot of bad luck, and your arse will be rotting in jail just like all the other prisoners.
 
grugz said:
yeh but its a prison, not a retreat camp.... there are programs to get them off drugs, they probs got thrown into jail because of tryin to feed their addiction. they most likely admited that addiction to get a smaller sentance by taking on a drug rehab program, which is avaliable to them in jails....therefore i dont see why giving out needles should do but make problem worse... more like, oh look they are even giving us clean needles to get high.....

Look if all of us on here can handle our addictions/drug of choice without getting thrown into jail, i dont see why they cant-> if not realise they are in alot of hot water and help themselves by goin on a program

yes my brain did explode.... so much for punishment, my taxes go to housing them in jail, their foxtel, aircon food etc and then centrelink outside.....
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You, my friend, are an absolute, ignorant piece of shit. I know I am going to get reported or banned for this... But this has to be said.

So in "your tax paying world", everyone in jail is a junkie? Is this what you really believe? OK, let's get a bit of a reality check happening mate.

I must be one of those non tax paying fuck wits you are referring to. I was in jail for 18 months in total for supplying precursor chemicals to make the drugs which you, yes YOU good tax payer sir, use. I didn't use ANY drug at the time, and only started using certain drugs a couple years after I was released. So I was actually jailed so I could make your life easier by making sure your drug of choice was available... Crazy hey.

You are so ignorant it isn't even funny. I would love to meet you and have a coffee to see if your opinion would be the same in person. I dare say it wont be.

IMO you should be the one punished for using a drug just to get high. Do you honestly think ANY drug was initially used for recreational purposes? Idiot. No. Every illicit drug available today was ORIGINALLY created to BETTER peoples lives. It's a shame that society today, and the way people have to source drugs, as totally reversed this.

The majority (95%) of people in prison, I assure you, had total control over their drug use, and some even acknowledged they were addicted and needed help. Heroin, was the big problem in prison. People don't get locked up for stealing shit to support their habit, they get locked up when people like you lag them in so they can feel a bit better about their own using habits. Heroin, I agree is a bad drug, but why are you pigeon holing everyone who uses it? Are you that fucking dumb?

ALSO... People don't admit to addiction to get a smaller sentence you fuckin clown, people admit to addiction in court so their sentence includes some kind of drug treatment program they wouldn't usually have access to outside.

To me, you sound like one of two people:

1: A cop... A disgruntled low life, nerd at school, now uses drugs so is cool, cop. The way you speak makes me sick, and if you are not a cop you are
2: An ignorant individual with delusions of grandeur.

Foxtel in jail? Which jail has foxtel? I was at MAP, MRC, Port Phillip, Barwon and then Beechworth, NONE of those jails had foxtel or any kind of luxuries. You are so uninformed it isn't funny.

To wrap up: People in jail should have access to clean needles. The prison officers know that drugs are all around, there is nothing which can be done to stop it. So instead of people using dirty syringes and upping the HEP C rate in the prison system (which is already 1 in 4), I feel this would assist a lot in reducing the risk of contraction of a deadly disease.

You wanna argue, I'll post my address, come over and have a chat tough guy.
 
Nice one Ayahuasca...I hope grugz takes some of this into account. It's ok to have a difference of opinion but ignoring any facts that don't align with your personal views turns into ignorance.
 
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