A scheme in which prisoners are put back on drugs before being released from jail has been defended by a Scottish Executive minister.

The radical programme called Retox is aimed at reducing the number of deaths among ex-inmates who overdose on hard drugs as soon as they are freed.

In 1999, 15 former prisoners died within two weeks of leaving jails.

Deputy Justice Minister Dr Richard Simpson told BBC Scotland's Holyrood programme: "If there are that many deaths occurring within the first few weeks of coming out of prison, we are obliged to do something. It's a handful of prisoners."

This is a policy of total and abject surrender to the drugs crisis

Bill Aitken Scottish Tories

He insisted that those considered for the programme were "totally chaotic people who repeatedly in going out of prison have risked their lives by taking quantities of hard drugs".

Asked how the scheme was viewed in areas trying to reduce drug-taking and crime, Dr Simpson said: "The alternative is they come out of jail, they commit crime on those very communities and they then use that criminally earned money to get drugs.

"So saying that this is not to protect the community is a completely false approach.

"There are 7,500 prisoners entering treatment systems, there are only a handful in Retoxification. This must be kept in perspective."

Tory rebuke

But the Scottish Conservatives' deputy justice spokesman Bill Aitken described the scheme as "absolutely appalling".

"This is a policy of total and abject surrender to the drugs crisis which we see as one of the biggest issues today," he declared.

"The executive must adopt a tougher and more realistic line or condemn future generations to a greater and more sinister involvement with drugs."

Bill Aitken: "Absolutely appalling"

David Bryce, a member of the Glasgow-based Calton Athletic Recovery Group, said he knew of a man who had been given methadone before being released from a six-year sentence.

"Maybe it sounded okay in some people's idea as a theory but it never proved successful.

"The boy came out, all the services was there for him, but because he was already on drugs, all of his prescribed drugs, because he was an addict he started using other drugs and started offending very quickly and I think he's back in prison today."

'Extreme response'

Professor Neil McKeganey, from the Drugs Misuse Centre, Glasgow University, said: "We know that when drug addicts leave jail they are at very high risk of overdose if they resume their previous pattern of drug use, out in the community."

"If you've got someone who's obtained abstinence and they're going to be released, it does seem strange to then reintroduce them to drugs prior to their release.

Prof. Neil McKeganey: "High risk"

"My own feeling is that one should be ensuring that they've got adequate support services, they have information alerting them to the risks, if they do resume their previous pattern of drug use.

"But reintroducing them to drugs is an extreme response, which if it was appropriate would probably be only so for a very small number of people."

Three out of every four prisoners enter jail with some kind of drugs problem and the service insists Retoxification is only for a hard core of prisoners who refuse or are unable to reform.

Dr Alan Mitchell, Scottish Prisons Service, said: "In a small minority of cases, in an attempt to prevent overdose, we retoxify prisoners such that, when they are liberated they reduce, the risk of death from overdose is very much reduced."