HUNDREDS of heroin addicts in Hong Kong prisons will be given a methadone substitute every day if the Government adopts a revolutionary plan being examined by experts.
The Health Department has asked the Correctional Services Department (CSD) to determine whether it would be beneficial to extend the Government's $20 million methadone programme, now treating about 9,000 people, to prisons territory-wide.
But senior CSD officers fear the programme would compromise security and lead to racketeering by prisoners at the Government's expense.
''There is a danger that inmates would demand more than they need and then use it for illegal transactions with other prisoners,'' said CSD Senior Superintendent Pauline Chan Sim-ying, who is conducting an intensive study.
Hong Kong prisons accommodate about 2,500 prisoners convicted for drug offences. Senior CSD officers estimate that incarcerated addicts account for up to half the entire prison population of about 11,000, excluding those in Vietnamese detention centres.
Dozens of heroin addicted teenagers as young as 14 are serving sentences at CSD drug addiction detention and treatment centres at Hei Ling Chau, Tai Lam and Tai Tam Gap.