THE drugs problem is the biggest issue facing the police in the Isle of Man, with drugs offences far outnumbering any other crime.

That is the clear position as indicated in figures released yesterday by the Isle of Man government giving a breakdown in the statistics of prisoners currently in Jurby Prison.

Drugs offenders are more than double the number of any other category and account for 41% of all prisoners currently serving a sentence.

The statistics were released by the Department of Home Affairs in response to a Tynwald question by Onchan MHK Zac Hall requesting a breakdown by offence of the prisoners.

Of the 108 people currently in prison, 44 are there for drugs-related offences such as possession and intent to supply. 

This far outweighs the number serving sentences for crimes of violence (21) and property theft (17). The next highest figure (8) relates to crimes of a sexual nature.

Mr Hall wanted a breakdown of figures for the last 12 months, but - somewhat surprisingly - the DHA does not retain figures going back that far, making a comparison year-on-year very difficult to obtain.

isleofman.com has attempted to find out the statistics from government sources for the number of offenders in prison and the offences committed, but these are not currently available.

A spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs said, “The computer system used to record information in the prison is a live data base [called PIMS]. This means that the information is constantly updated and, therefore, does not allow users to have a “snapshot” of the prisoner population at any time in the past.

“It does, however, allow a current “snapshot” to be taken and this was taken at 2pm on October 12.”