Government of Jersey

Prisoners Charged with Drug Offences (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 14 October 2024.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please confirm the number of people currently held at Le Moye Prison on drugs offences and the annual cost of keeping them?

Please break this down by offences relating to Class of Drugs (A, B, or C) and conviction, such as possession or possession with intent to supply, or perhaps another way to gauge the severity of the offence for which they are held.

Response

On the 8 October 2024 there was 49 prisoners being held at HMP La Moye on an Indexed Offence for Drug offences. 36 are Convicted on these charges and 13 are on remand. Please note there may be other prisoners that are being held also on drug offences but not deemed as their main offence. To ascertain this would exceed the 12.5 hours allowed for Freedom of Information responses in accordance with Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014, as this would require manual checking of each record. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

The annual cost can be found in previous a previous Freedom of Information response, therefore Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. Please see the following link:

Cost of housing prisoners in La Moye prison (FOI)

It has been estimated that to break the data down into Class of Drugs would exceed the 12.5 hours allowed for Freedom of Information responses in accordance with Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied. However please see the below table that may give an indication of the range of sentences prisoners are serving under drug offences.

Indexed Offence	Length of Sentences Range
	From	To
Customs and Excise (Jersey) Law 1999 Article 61 (2) - Customs and Excise (Jersey) Law 1999 Article 61 (2) (b) Importation of a controlled drug and	7 months	10 years
Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 4(1) - Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on importation	7 months	10 years
Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 5 (b) - Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 5 (b) Supply of a drug	9 years	17 years
Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 5 (c) - Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 5 (c) Concerned in the supply of a drug	3 years	10 years 6 months
Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 8 (2) - Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 Article 8 (2) Possession with intent to supply a drug	4 years	11 years
Criminal Offences (Jersey) Law 2009 Article 1 (1) - Criminal Offences (Jersey) Law 2009 Article 1 (1) (b) - Conspiring to supply controlled drugs	7 years	9 years 4 months

Articles applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.