The fight to keep drugs out of jails has suffered a damaging blow after it emerged that scanning equipment supposed to detect narcotics has been making mistakes. said the future of the ion scan machines had been called into question.

And after a spate of costly breakdowns, the Department of Corrections was now considering the effectiveness of the security equipment.

He told the House of Assembly: ?Regrettably there have been frequent equipment failures and the cost of repair, maintenance and consumable items is high.?

Mr. Horton, raising serious doubts about the accuracy of the devices that pick up drug traces on people, added: ?The equipment can also give false positives and false negatives and the department is no longer able to rely upon ion scan as its primary means of preventing drugs being brought into facilities.?

He said that the equipment would continue to be used but would ?supplement? other methods aimed at curbing drug availability behind bars, which he said continued to ?plague? Bermuda?s three jails.

The scale of the problem facing Government was underlined by figures showing that more than 80 percent of new inmates tested positive for illegal drugs.

Mr. Horton, speaking during Wednesday?s budget debate, said Prison Commissioner Hubert Dean had said that more effective use could be made of staff currently operating ion scan equipment by deploying them in ?known areas of vulnerability?. These included prisoners returning from court appearances and Mr. Horton said it was understood that this gave prisoners the best chance to smuggle drugs into jail.

In the wake of the ion scan problems, the Minister switched attention to the prison service?s dog unit to sniff out trouble.

?The canine unit, properly deployed, can be a highly effective element of the department?s drugs strategy,? he added. ?The dog handlers have been introduced to a more effective way of working when searching visitors to Westgate and it is proposed to change attendance arrangements to improve deployment.?

Prison dogs will be trained alongside Police drug dogs, although they will not be trained for aggressive action, Mr. Horton stressed.

It is not the first time ion scan devices, used to carry out random checks on inmates, staff and visitors, have been caught up in controversy. In 2004, it was claimed that a scanner had been broken for three weeks. And the previous year it was claimed that prison guards were turning off the machine.

Two machines costing $40,000 each have been installed at Westgate and the Prison Farm, while the Prison Service also has a cheaper, portable machine.

Government has repeatedly trumpeted the equipment as a key weapon in the battle to keep prisons drug-free. In 2004 it was revealed that random scans had detected 118 out of 1,500 visitors who had come into contact with drugs.

Ministers said that visitors found with drugs traces on their clothing three times would be banned permanently from prisons, and those that come up positive for traces were denied access. Those caught trying to smuggle narcotics inside would be arrested on the spot.

Two years ago it emerged that 30 percent of prisoners randomly screened for drugs using the scanning devices tested positive.

Meanwhile, Mr. Horton pledged in the budget debate that reducing the supply of drugs in jails remained ?critically important? to Government, and said the problem had a damaging effect on rehabilitation programmes.

A ?comprehensive? draft strategy, drawn up by a working group overseen by Bryan Payling, the UK consultant hired to help with prison training and succession planning, on drug supply reduction is currently on his desk. Findings will be shared with the Minister for National Drug Control, Wayne Perinchief.

Mr. Horton also said that the existing drug testing regime would be rolled out. Mandatory random testing was introduced at the start of this year, and between 10 and 20 percent of all inmates would be selected randomly to get a reliable snapshot of drug use.

?Once random testing is well established, it is planned to introduce mandatory tests for other reasons, including suspicion testing, risk assessment and frequent testing programmes.?

He also said consideration would also be given to ?drug-free areas? where prisoners who want to stay clean can be supported by a voluntary testing regime.

Other measures laid out in the debate include fixed seating at visiting rooms at Westgate and more stringent enforcement of visiting restrictions ? including bans and closed visits. Mr. Horton also revealed that information about visitors who test positive for drugs will be routinely sent to the Bermuda Police Service.

He added that the importance of prisoner treatment could not be overemphasised, with latest urine test results indicating that more than 80 percent of new inmates entering prison were positive. ?The people of Bermuda may be assured that every lawful measure will be taken to attack the use of illicit drugs in our correctional facilities.?

Medical coverage at Westgate is also being reviewed to ensure it meets the needs of drug users starting sentences.

And public access around the prison is due to be looked at by the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing in a bid to prevent people throwing contraband over the walls.