A SURVEY of prisoners in Scotland’s jails has revealed that more than 43 per cent have taken drugs behind bars - despite strict security measures which apply to visitors and staff.

The majority used Class B cannabis but many took Class A cocaine and ecstasy - and some even had access to needles to inject heroin even though substitute methadone is available and regularly used by 20% of those who completed the questionnaire.

Every two years the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) asks inmates at each of the country’s 15 jails to fill out a detailed survey on a variety of subjects, including drug use. More than half of prisoners took part and 8% of respondents were women.

The most recent results for 2015show that 43% admitted they used illegal drugs “at some point” in prison. More worryingly some 10% insisted they had never taken drugs until they were sent to prison.

The number of people using illegal substances is up 5% from when the last survey was carried out in 2013.

A quarter of prisoners said they used drugs in the month before completing the questionnaire.

Cannabis was taken by 61% of prisoners, 33% used heroin, 11% took cocaine and 9% used ecstasy, while 6% injected drugs in prison.

A former prisoner, who served part of his sentence in Barlinnie before a miscarriage of justice was established and he was freed on appeal, insisted he didn’t take drugs before he was put behind bars.

The Scot, who asked not to be named, said: “I was a young boy when I went to prison and I didn’t know what a drug looked like, but I took every drug known to man in prison. If I hadn’t taken drugs I would have lost my sanity completely. You couldn’t live with that type of intense pressure otherwise.

“It was easy to get my hands on drugs. There was institutionalised drug taking. They ran some rehabilitative course but guys are only going on that to get out of their cells, often to meet people to get drugs. People even go to church to get drugs.

“People on visits bring them in too, but there are also prison staff making a lot of money from prisoners.

“Sometimes at eight o’clock at night when there has been no visits that day and you can’t get off the wing, all of a sudden the wing is flooded with drugs. So, you know, prison staff have to take a large responsibility for what’s going on.

“There are people taking backhanders left right and centre. I know that for a fact. I was in amongst it for more than two decades.”

The SPS says it has “robust” security measures in place, and “significant investment” is made in the development of new technology and staff training to “detect, deter and reduce the availability and supply of illegal drugs,” according to a spokeswoman.

However, increasingly innovative ways to smuggle drugs are being employed according to Jim Watson, information co-ordinator with the organisation ‘Positive Prison? Positive Futures’, which supports the reintegration of people who have been jailed.

Watson, who was himself released from prison three years ago, said: “When I was inside there was definitely drugs about. There wasn’t a lot of noticeable use but there was certainly people on longer sentences who had access. The way they get it in is generally from inmates on day release, people visiting or officers.

“Some of the anecdotal stuff you’d hear about is pretty horrific. At one point they were throwing dead pigeons over the wall. An officer gave it a kick and all these packets fell out.

“You see you are dealing with people who have an addiction problem and they need to feed that habit so they will find ways to do that.

“It’s an ongoing problem which they’re never going to fundamentally solve. Whenever they come up with a way, another method of bypassing it is created.”

SPS provides support services to addicts but in the survey just 39% said they had been assessed on arrival at prison and only a quarter received treatment.

David Liddell, CEO at the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: “We have argued strongly for alternatives to custody being in place as there is strong evidence they are likely to be more effective than prison particularly in terms of the vicious cycle of drug driven crime leading to conviction and imprisonment leading to release and relapse to drug use and drug-driven crime and so on.

“For those that do go to prison we need to make sure there is appropriate treatment and that people are linked to appropriate treatment and aftercare services on release.”

Liddell added: “These statistics do not show us what substances people started using in prison or whether their use becomes problematic or is continued after liberation…it will be crucial to know the drivers for people starting drug use in prison and what could be done to address and reduce these.”

A spokeswoman for the SPS said: “While the number of those who said they had ever used illegal drugs in prison is up since the previous survey in 2013, overall since 2004 this figure has dropped from 55% to 43%, and those who self-reported illegal drug use in the last month in prison is 24%, which is down from the previous survey.

“The Addictions Prevalence Testing (APT) performance data results show that 70% of prisoners tested on reception had illegal drugs in their system upon entry against 29% on exit, demonstrating a reduction in prevalence of drug use of 41%. SPS welcomes this significant reduction.”