hospital where he could receive treatment for his addiction.

And Maurice A. Burrows said sending him back to prison would be pointless as drugs were available in the prisons.

Burrows, 32, of Friswell's Hill, Pembroke, told Chief Justice Austin Ward that he was a drug user and had been using drugs in prison.

"They (drugs) are available,'' he said. "You can purchase them. You can get money to buy them.'' But Prisons Commissioner Edward Dyer, while admitting it was probable that drugs got into the prisons, said yesterday there had never been sufficient information to get a "clear picture''.

Burrows pleaded guilty in Supreme Court to three counts of breaking and entering.

Crown counsel Jo-Dina Pearman said Burrows broke into a Devonshire home via a bedroom window while the owner was asleep on May 14 -- 12 days after he was released from prison -- and stole $1,600 from under a mattress.

On June 17 a Pembroke couple discovered that someone broke into their house and stole $22,000. Burrows later confessed to the offence.

And on June 27, Burrows broke into Attitudes Nightclub on Reid Street, but nothing was stolen.

Burrows was released from prison on May 2 after serving most of a six-year prison sentence for 12 convictions for break-ins and thefts.

He told the court he had a psychological problem and had spent time in a psychiatric hospital several years ago.

He asked Mr. Justice Ward to invoke section 33 of the Mental Health Act which would allow him to be placed in a psychiatric hospital until he was deemed fit to return to society.

"I want section 33 to be invoked cause they (St. Brendan's) have detoxification and therapy programmes,'' Burrows said. "Give me the help I need. Put me in a mental hospital until the doctors say I'm well enough to return to society.'' Saying the public needed to feel secure in their homes, Mr. Justice Ward sentenced Burrows to five years in prison for breaking into the Devonshire house, five-and-a-half-years for stealing $22,000 and four-and-a-half-years for breaking into the nightclub. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Mr. Dyer admitted that officials "periodically'' found small quantities of drugs and cash in prison.

"Occasionally we do get some information about drug use in prison,'' Mr. Dyer said. "But we never get enough information to develop a clear picture. I almost feel like challenging these prisoners who only allude to it and never provide details. We've never found enough quantity (of drugs) to say that we have a rampant problem, but I'm not so naive to think that some of it does not make it in.''