Sturgeon will give ‘serious consideration’ to changing prison rules on storing drugs
Nicola Sturgeon has promised “due and serious consideration” will be given to whether prisons should have to store drug-soaked mail for inmates before returning it to them on their release.
The First Minister made the commitment just days after her Justice Secretary Keith Brown announced that prisoners could be given photocopies of letters in a bid to stop them getting papers which have been soaked in illegal substances.
At the time, Mr Brown conceded that prison officers are beingforcedtohandbackdrugs takenfromprisonerswhenthey leave custody, which could be soaked into mail.
Speaking at First Ministers’ Questions yesterday, Scottish Conservatives leader Ross said under standard operating procedures, prison officers were bound to return property belonging to prisoners – even if their items contain drugs.
He said: “Prisoners have the option to have items contaminated with drugs safely stored and returned to them on their release. Prison officers are telling us that they're having to hand drugs back to the prisoners as they leave.
"Will the First Minister commit to ending this practice immediately?”
Mr Ross also called on the First Minister to commit to removing “unhackable phones” given to prisoners, which have subsequently been hacked and used for drugs deals.
The First Minister said Scotland had a "significant challenge”
when it came to drugs deaths and called for parties to “come together across the chamber” to tackle the issue.
"We have a particular challenge in our prisons and I think all of us understand the different factors that are at play there,” she said.
"And so I would hope that across this chamber, we could come together to welcome the ways in which we are seeking
to change past practice to recognise where perhaps we should have done things differently in the past and do them differently in the future. I hope that there is an appetite to build consensus on this.”
She added: “In the spirit of openness, I will certainly look at that.
"It is the case that prisoners have rights. Often these rights are upheld in courts of
law and we have to consider these things carefully in making sure that we address these things properly.
"I accept his sincerity on this issue without doubt or equivocation. But it is too easy for all of us, across the chamber, to oversimplify some of these issues and quoting ministers, forgetting to understand the nuances of this.
"The factors behind the
drugs crisis are complex and I think we all understand that.
“The particular issue he's raisedthere,iwillgoinandlook atthatindetailandifweconsiderthereisachangethatisnecessaryandappropriateandpossible to make there, then I undertake that we will give that due and serious consideration.”
Ms Sturgeon said the mobile phones issue was being treated “with urgency” and that “robust monitoring” had found “a small minority” of around 7 per cent of handsets had been tampered with.
The phones were handed out during the pandemic to 7,600 inmates, costing £2.7 million, to allow prisoners’ families to keep in contact with them when visiting was restricted due to Covid regulations.