Half of prisoners had drug problems before entering Derry jail which has higher rates of usage

The minister provided the insight when she was asked for an assessment of the rates of positive drugs tests at the north Derry jail.

She said: "The Criminal Justice Inspectorate Northern Ireland (CJINI) inspected Magilligan Prison between May 21 and June 10 in 2021. The report of this inspection outlines that the average positive rate of random mandatory drug tests was higher than comparative prisons.

"Drug testing information for this period reflects that this equates to 30 positive tests over a period of 6 months with the majority of positive tests indicating illicit use of prescription medication based drugs."

The minister explained that recent studies have shown a high prevalence of drug addiction in the prison.

"There are a significant number of individuals who come into contact with the justice system who have unmet health and addiction issues and a proportion of those people will be committed to our prisons.

"This is reinforced by information from the survey completed during the inspection of Magilligan Prison where half of the respondents said that they had a drug problem before arrival at the establishment," she said.

She said 'the overwhelming majority of failures were for the illicit use of prescription medication based drugs' but added that the prison authorities were working to stop drug trafficking.

She stated: "Magilligan Prison is committed to disrupting the supply, reducing the demand and promoting principles of recovery for people in custody. This work will include action to address recommendations made by CJINI in their most recent inspection.

"The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) continues to work closely with the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT) and other key partners to focus on reducing the supply of illicit drugs, educating those in our care about the dangers of drug abuse and providing treatment programmes for those who present with addiction issues.

"A comprehensive range of security measures are in place within Magilligan to reduce the availability and supply of illicit substances and associated paraphernalia. This includes passive/proactive drug dogs, cell, visitor and staff searches and mandatory drug testing."

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