The struggle to keep contraband out of our prisons is constant. It is also very public. Evidence of this, if anyone needs it, is a claim last month by an ex-prisoner that he smoked Pure Methamphetamine at Mt Eden as prison officers looked on. This was the anonymous claim of one man, and it had not been verified at time of writing, but it led to a high-profile story on TV One news and chipped away at the Department's credibility.
It is a tough battle. We have 19 sites covering many hundreds of hectares and which contain around 7700 prisoners, some of whom rail constantly against the rules, and resort to coercion, persuasion and threats to get access to what they might be used to in their lives on the outside.
Prisoners don't become addicts in prison. About 80 percent of prisoners have abused drugs and/or alcohol at some time in their lives. For more than half of them, drugs/alcohol were a factor when they committed their crimes.
I have used these statistics often. They bear repeating again and again. It is also well worth repeating that drugs, including 'P', are now much more commonplace in all walks of society - both here and in comparable countries.
But while offenders are the responsibility of the Department of Corrections, they should understand clearly that they have to forgo many of the things they once took for granted, including the ability to use a mobile phone to talk at their convenience. It is the price of their offending.
Corrections has in recent years achieved some impressive results in combating the amount of contraband coming into our prisons. Seventeen kilometres of fencing, single points of entry, teams of drug-sniffing dogs, random searches, have all led to many more drugs and cellphones being stopped at the gate. At the same time, the number of positive random drug test results in prisoners has reduced significantly.
Work is also progressing on ways to render cellphones unusable in prisons through the use of new technology.
Add to these the gains being made on the drug/alcohol demand side - such as resources for many extra drug and alcohol treatment places in prisons - and it is clear there are good reasons to be encouraged.
But despite this solid progress, we should never stop asking ourselves whether we are doing enough. We must all be vigilant - at all times.
We must also make the best possible use of the resources we have. No government in any country allocates to prison authorities the level of resources required to completely stamp these kinds of things out. It is a hugely expensive exercise in chasing diminishing returns, and one this country cannot afford, given our health and education needs.
We know that there will always be people on the outside who are prepared to throw a package of drugs over a prison wall or fence, smuggle 'P' into prisons inside their babies' clothing, or a cellphone inside themselves.
Similarly, I am confident that we will always have a professional and motivated staff who know that the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners is not possible if rules are broken and drugs available.
I hope you and your families have a great Christmas and a safe and rewarding 2007.
The Minister of Corrections,
Hon. Damien O’Connor
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ISSN 1178-8453