(Session 4)

Presentations: Mr. Radovan Zupancic, Psychologist at prison in Celje,

Slovenia: "Practice and benefits of Harm reduction in prison". Mr Aldo

Carli, Ministry of Justice, Slovenia: "Legal aspects of the mitigation of

the harmful effects of drug abuse in prisons in Slovenia".

Radovan Zupancic, Psychologist at prison in Celje, Slovenia, spoke

about "Practice and benefits of Harm reduction in prison". He said that

the incidence of illegal drug use had risen rapidly in Slovenia from 1990

on and that the number of intravenous drug users was growing. This meant

that, also among the prison population, there was an urgent need to face

the risks of HIV and Hepatitis C infections by taking adequate measures.

In his prison, he estimated that 18 out of the 40 prisoners were drug

users.

He said that penal institutions in Slovenia were already dealing in

different ways with this challenge. They did not only analyse scientific

research results and distribute this knowledge among colleagues, but also

offer concrete services to prisoners, like health education, condoms and

methadone detoxification programmes (in co-operation with the Institute for

Public Health and the nearest Centre for Treatment and Addiction

Prevention). Recent discussions focussed on how the range of treatment

possibilities available to drug users in the community could also be made

available inside prison: this would for example include methadone

maintenance programmes. With regard to the small size of many penal

institutions in his country, he pleaded for each institution to offer the

services they were competent to provide - and not to try to offer 'all

existing approaches' in each prison. He also drew the attention of the

audience to the fact that harm related to drug use should not be seen as

limited to the users of drugs, but also as harm to prison staff, and asked

for harm reduction measures directed at the personnel of these

institutions. "As in other areas", he stressed, "we have to find out the

most safe and human way to cope with such situations..."

Aldo Carli, Ministry of Justice, spoke about "Legal aspects of the

mitigation of the harmful effects of drug abuse in prisons in Slovenia".

He summarised how existing penal legislation on drug production,

distribution, enabling of consumption and possession aims - with severe

penalties - to achieve preventive effects for drug users, the victims of

such offences. Furthermore, the law in Slovenia foresees obligatory

treatment of drug addicts, in addition to a prison sentence. He then

mentioned a number of further legal norms that apply to illegal acts

committed by a person while imprisoned (smuggling drugs into the prison,

dealing and using drugs while imprisoned). The measures include

disciplinary sanctions (solitary confinement, restriction of visits) and

further repressive and preventive measures to try to reduce harmful effects

resulting from drug abuse in penitentiary institutions (e.g. relocation of

prisoner from common residential premises to special premises, or body

searches).

In a second part of his speech, he analysed the effectiveness of the

available repressive and preventive legal norms in terms of harm reduction.

He concluded that experts in the field of criminal law appear to be

"correct in claiming that the law should not be excessively relied upon as

an effective instrument for reducing harmful effects from drug abuse" and

warning of the damage caused by excessive criminalisation in this area. He

acknowledged that there was a growing number of drug users in prison in

Slovenia - like there are outside prison. The characteristics of the

Slovene prison system (sentences are served in groups and prisoners have

temporary release) but also the general prison conditions (mail packages,

visitors) made it impossible to control the influx of drugs. It was

impossible to control drug dealing inside prison with legal means only.

In a final part, he presented regulations of the new Law on the

Execution of Penal Sanctions (after comments from the Government Office for

Legislation this law is currently submitted for discussion to Parliament)

that were envisaged to tackle the problem of smuggling and dealing more

effectively. Stricter controls are foreseen through drug testing of

prisoners (which in certain cases can be done without the consent of the

prisoner), through increased control of mail, and through more severe

disciplinary punishment. He mentioned solitary confinement, the creation

of specially secured departments for dangerous prisoners or the possibility

to remove a prisoner from collective residential premises to a special

isolated room. Concerning treatment of addicted prisoners, a new element

in the law is to carry out obligatory treatment in health and other

specialised institutions, if specific conditions are given.

On the other hand, another new law, the Law on the Prevention of the

Use of Prohibited Drugs and the Treatment of Drug Users will also be

submitted to the government, which contains several provisions that are

incompatible with the above mentioned regulations on the execution of penal

sanctions. In this context, Mr Carli criticised in particular that

prisoners were not separately mentioned in the proposed law and that the

draft law also foresees that the Minister of Health can pronounce the

measure of syringe-distribution in prisons. The latter was clearly

incompatible with the existing and the new Law on the Execution of Penal

Sanctions and is seen as a way of promoting drug abuse in prison. His

final recommendation was that the proposed law on prevention and treatment

should be discussed by the widest possible political and professional

circles and be completed before it is sent to the National Assembly.

The presentation was followed by questions from the audience about

when the Law on the Execution of Penal Sanctions will be adopted and if the

probation period was included in the legal reform. The animated discussion

focussed on the types of treatment (in particular methadone maintenance

treatment and therapeutic communities, but also drug-free wings and

low-threshold programmes), and treatment- availability in the different

prisons.