INMATES at an open prison are being bullied by dealers into buying drugs that they do not want, a prison visiting committee said yesterday.
A report from the Noranside prison visiting committee to Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, criticises the tolerance shown to prisoners who test positive for drugs.
The report also describes a culture of bullying, high-level drug debt and absconding among inmates.
It also claimed cleanliness levels had worsened in cells, warned of overcrowding in jails, and expressed concern over the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) budgetary policy, which presses for prisons to make 5% savings every year.
The report states: ''We have concerns regarding the overall issue of drugs together with the SPS policy, whereby those failing mandatory drug tests are no longer immediately re-turned to close conditions.
It adds: ''We have concerns regarding the 'knock-on' long-term effect on the establishment in respect of the availability and usage of illicit drugs . . . in terms of discipline, staff morale and high-level drug debt, the latter undoubtedly resulting in bullying and absconding.''
Neil Powrie, a Dundee Conservative councillor and chairman of the visiting committee, said the Scottish Executive and the SPS had to start listening to their visiting committees.
An SPS spokesman said: ''We do not tolerate the abuse of drugs in prison.''
Normally a prisoner who tests positive is sent back to the closed prison system, although where it is regarded as an isolated lapse, a prisoner may be given a second chance.
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