Scotland's prison officers should not be required to hand back inmates' illegal drugs when are released – Scotsman comment

Those of us who have never fallen foul of the law to such an extent that we end up in prison know from television dramas that, on arrival, new inmates hand over their personal belongings, which are kept and then returned to them at the end of their sentence.

Prison inmates get personal belongings they arrived with returned when they leave. This should not include illegal drugs (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

However, what we did not realise is that those possessions could – according to prison officers cited by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross – include illegal drugs.

At Holyrood yesterday, Ross told the First Minister that “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.”

Asked by Ross to end this practice “immediately”, Nicola Sturgeon responded that she would “certainly look at that” and The Scotsman will be very much interested to hear the outcome of her enquiries.

According to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, “it shall not be lawful for a person (a) to produce a controlled drug; or (b) to supply or offer to supply a controlled drug to another”.

So it is hard for The Scotsman, legally untrained as we are, to see how the prison officers forced into this invidious situation are not breaking the law.

For while Scotland recently decided that people caught with small amounts of Class A drugs would be given a police warning instead of being prosecuted, these substances and others do still remain illegal and “supplying” is a more serious matter than possession.

If Ross’s mind-boggling assertion is true then, well, the mind boggles.

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