A CAMPAIGNING priest has launched a blistering attack on the Government for not doing enough to keep prisoners off drugs.

And Father Jim McCartney highlighted one case involving a Blackburn man who was introduced to heroin when he was behind bars.

Fr McCartney set up the charity THOMAS (Those On The Margins Of Society) at St Anne's RC Church, France Street, Blackburn, to help the socially excluded and drug addicts.

He spoke out at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool yesterday.

Fr McCartney, priest of St Anne's, was backed by former Tory Prison Minister Ann Widdecombe, in his call for a prison service which tackles drug abuse more effectively.

He said: "In some prisons, inmates are locked up for 23 hours a day. I find that beyond belief. Instead of helping prisoners off drugs, which are often the reason they are in prison in the first place, the prison system inadvertently encourages people to get hooked.

"We have one client on the THOMAS rehab programme at the moment who was introduced to heroin while in prison. In that case, the drug problem suddenly got much, much worse.

"The fact that heroin is inside prisons in the first place is shocking, but the fact there seems to be little support to help people off drugs is even worse.

"More needs to be done to rehabilitate drug abusers in prison but also to keep those who come in 'clean'."

Tory delegates attending the fringe were shown video diaries from some of the former inmates currently on the THOMAS programme. One said THOMAS worked because the support staff wanted them to succeed, whereas as prison officers running rehab programmes only saw it as a job.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We understand Father McCartney's concerns but drugs in prisons is a very difficult problem. We have launched a range of initiatives to try and tackle this including drug testing of inmates, CCTV in visiting areas and the use of drug sniffer dogs to try and stop them getting in.

"We are also expanding the use of the probation services to rehabilitate drug addict offenders on release.

"We try to emphasise the consequences of drug addiction to offenders and provide activities to help them. We also try to ensure that those who come into prison without drug problems leave without them."