How to stop the Spice problem
Spice is a huge problem, as we all know. The issues that come alongside it are mental breakdowns, self-harm, debt, bullying, and adjudications. Once a person tries Spice, it always ends the same way. At first, you can maintain and stay afloat, but however much you have, it is never enough. It starts small, one or two pipes a night, keeping it undercover, Then your tolerance builds and builds so that one or two pipes turn into a card a day, then a quarter of a page a day, then half a page a day, then a whole A4 sheet gets smoked in one night.
Before long, any money you have is spent on a piece of A4 paper. Then your money runs out and your canteen gets sold. Then your canteen runs out so you start to sell your property. Before you know it, your cell is barren and you have nothing left to trade. At this point, your addiction is so bad that you feel like you can’t bang up for the night with no Spice. So you end up doing desperate acts in order to get it, like doing a hit for the Spice man, or potting a member of staff, or going on the railings to p** the staff off and get banged up. You potentially get yourself extra days or a further sentence, segregated or put on Basic, and the cycle continues.
The officers can see what is going on, but they don’t care so long as you don’t die on their time or try to assault them. They just let it happen over and over again, and there is no intervention. Some even laugh at the state of the prisoners suffering from the grip of addiction. To them, you’re not a human being that needs help. You’re a prisoner who deserves to suffer.
There is actually a way to stop this from happening and break the cycle. But that’s only if the establishment we reside in cares enough to do so. This is how.
Once a prisoner is seen to be smoking Spice or caught under the influence, the staff need to report it instantly. Following that report, a Mandatory Drug Test (MDT) should be done on the same day to confirm the substance. Once the MDT is done, the suspected prisoner should be moved via security to a full lockdown and quarantine wing. The only prisoners on this wing should be those who have offended. No wing cleaners, no wing workers, only staff to run a lockdown regime in which the prisoners are monitored 24/7, even in the showers. All medication and food delivered to the prisoner’s door. The quarantine should last for a minimum of 14 days. During that time the prisoner should not be allowed any electrical items or plug sockets, so they are unable to get flame to smoke with. Even their vape pen would not be charged in the cell but would be handed over to staff to charge, just like in the Seg.
No personal property or paperwork from main location should be allowed to enter the cell. If despite all these safeguards the prisoner is still able to smoke and is caught under the influence, the 14 days should be reset. Upon the completion of quarantine, they should be placed on a substance-free wing away from anyone who is suspected of being involved in the sale of Spice.
Most establishments claim to want to stop the use of drugs and prevent further deaths. If that is true, then more needs to be done. Most would say they don’t have the facilities or the staff to do what I have just suggested, but that is a cop-out. If my suggestion was to save just one life and one person’s future, then they can’t justify their refusal to do it. It is time to take some action and create a change in every prison in this country.
As much as I agree and there is very little space to do this unless it is submitted with this in mind.
The new sites like Millsike and Five Wells have this ability.
I don’t think a lack of staff is a “cop out” at all.
While some officers are plain evil + shouldn’t be in the job there are many others either jaded by the job or just plain sick of lack of staff and have such low moral they don’t have the energy to do anything but survive the shift. Especially when management don’t give a damn.
These problems are to deep rooted for such simple solutions and would receive push back – not all who need to agree to it would do.
These systems across public sectors are screwed – prison is not alone – only, in prison/police/nhs/etc we are in added danger of physical attacks just because the attacker can’t control themselves.
Thank you, if I may humbly appreciate your analysis from outside. I agree that the best stopping is before the Spice has really taken hold. The point you made about “not troubling the system, equals no Officer action,” I suggest might apply more widely? Someone who is Zonko, is not complaining or agitating about being banged up for 22 hours a day. I am not saying that the system would prefer most inmates to be sedated, – but if Spice, Morphine, Methadone or Cocaine caused a wild ‘Viking Berserker’ type murderous excitement, – then I could envisage the Authorities doing more about it.