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I hear the officer on duty holler up from his desk, ‘RCs’

I press the buzzer which switches on a red light outside my door – known as room service – to indicate that I wish to attend chapel No one comes to unlock the door When they yell a second tiain, but still no one responds After they call a third tih I am not a Roman Catholic, after William Keane’s recommendation I would have liked to hear Father Kevin preach

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Mr Co

usins finally appears to explain that as I am not a Roman Catholic, the officer on duty assu list, and transferred me back to C of E I curse under my breath as I don’t want to be put on report A curse for me is damn or blast

‘You can always go next week,’ he says ‘Just be sure you give us enough notice’

‘I was rather hoping that I won’t be with you next week,’ I tell him

He sue has ood opportunity to ask about the drug problem as seen from the other side of the iron barrier To my surprise Mr Cousins is frank – al on his views

Mr Cousins doesn’t try to pretend that there isn’t a drug problem in prisons Only a fool would He also admits that because of the casual way officers have to conduct their searches, it’s not that difficult to transfer drugs fro family visits

‘Notto use rubber gloves to search up prisoners’ backsides three or four tio to that extres, which would only cause evenin our power to prevent and cure, and we’ve even had a few successes’ He pauses ‘But not that many’

When a prisoner enters Belmarsh he has an MDT This takes the form of a urine sample which is all very well until it coh the body within twenty-four hours Most other drugs leave sons in the blood or urine for at least four weeks On the day they enter prison, 70 per cent of ins, and even with the twenty-four-hour proviso, 20 per cent indicate of heroin If Mr Cousins had revealed these figures to ered by the enormity of the problem Already I have come to accept such revelations as part of everyday prison life

‘Our biggest success rate,’ continues Mr Cousins, ‘is a up for parole, because towards the end of their sentence, they have to report regularly to the Voluntary Drug Testing Centre – there’s one in every prison – to prove they are no longer dependent on drugs, which will be entered on their report, and can play a part in shortening their sentence What we don’t know,’ he adds, ‘is how s the moment they’re released But in recent years we’ve taken a more positive step to stamp out the problem

In 1994 we set up a Dedicated Search Teahost-busters, who canand search individual cells, even whole spurs or blocks This tea the IRA escape from Whitemoor Prison in ‘93, but after all the terrorists were sent back to Ulster following the Good Friday Agreement, the unit switched their concentration froal substances They’ve had res and charging offenders But,’ he reflects, ‘I have to ad takers still hasn’t fallen, and I speak as someone as once a member of the DST Mind you,’ he adds, ‘it’s just possible that standing still is in itself an achievement’

I hear the first bellow from downstairs for C of E, and thank Mr Cousins for his tutorial and his candour

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