Drug Free Australia asserts that the idea of introducing needles in the new prison the ACT is a dangerous precedent to contemplate and a retrograde step to consider.  The ACT Government should hold firm to its decision.

‘Drug Action Week is a time to make every effort to prevent and reduce drug use. I would have thought that it would be more beneficial to look at ways of rehabilitating prisoners rather than maintaining their habit. People need to be aware that drug maintenance programs have proven to be a significant factor in increasing drug use and acceptability,  Drug Free Australia’s Chair, NSW magistrate, Craig Thompson, said today.

To date the ACT Government has said that it would adhere to the call from the prison officers’ union - Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), but there is a very active movement within Australia, (starting with the ACT) to gain support for the introduction of needle and syringe programs in prisons.

For instance the forum being convened by a group called Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform will try to engender greater community support for the concept. If we examine their arguments they are totally flawed, said Jo Baxter, Executive Officer of Drug Free Australia:

1. Mantra: ‘Drugs get into all prisons and it would too costly to bring in measures to ensure that they don’t’. FLAWED – The opening of the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) is a landmark opportunity to bring in tougher measures from the start, with the clear ideal of having a drug-free prison. DFA refutes criticism of this ideal by reminding all Australians of the UN declaration on human rights (which embodies the ideal of bringing those rights to all the people of the world). No civilised country or government would refuse to embrace this ideal, or abandon it, simply because not all peoples yet have those rights. Australian taxpayers have a right to expect that this is part of the role of prisons – to prevent illegal activity and to rehabilitate those who are incarcerated.  Minister Corbell has already said that the AMC is to be a leader in rehabilitation
2. Mantra: 'The ability for prisoners to use needles to inject drugs in prisons will provide them with a healthier environment and will reduce the spread of HIV and Hep C’. WRONG: Firstly, one of the main ideas of a prison is to prevent illegal activity. It therefore follows that prisoners do not have rights to continue an illegal activity when in prison. Secondly, needles/syringes would be a weapon in the hands of many prisoners – to use on other prisoners and/or the guards, doctors and other prison personnel. Thirdly, it is fallacious to claim that needles will reduce blood borne viruses such as HIV and Hep C. There is strong evidence to the contrary. 

For example, quotes Colliss Parrett, Drug Free Australia Fellow (Canberra Times letters, 26 March 2008) "In March 2007 in relation to two studies, a research team from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research based at the University of NSW reported that Australia's heroin addicts have some of the highest Hepatitis C rates in the world, and that one-third of prisoners suffer from it. Also reported on was a study of more than 200 injecting drug users in Sydney's south-west showing that for every one hundred new users followed for a year, forty-six became infected with Hep C.
This new user figure is frightening. Up to 40% of injecting drug users share their needles. So, project the new user scene if free needles were given out in the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC).
 
To further illustrate the needle danger, consider that if as little as a quarter of a percent of a legal product purporting to be health-oriented was known to spread a potentially fatal disease upon sharing, it would be withdrawn immediately”.

‘In terms of the legal aspects of this question, the prison officers need to be supported to do their job – not have to cope with prisoners who are knowingly obtaining illegal substances. The whole scenario flies in the face of Australian laws related to illicit drugs and the National Drug Strategy.

The most responsible approach for prisoners who are drug affected, is to help them to recovery, NOT to  maintain and hence continue their illegal drug taking and addiction. Recent statistics from NSW show that a large proportion of prisoners who remain drug affected on release, re-offend and return to prison. This brings into play issues such public safety as well as the safety of prison officers and other prisoners. There is at least one case where a NSW prison officer died as a result of HIV after being stabbed with a needle in prison.’ said Mr Thompson.