Former AMC inmates say there is a lucrative black market in needles and illicit drugs, paid for with food, cigarettes, ''favours'', and often money transferred between the bank accounts of inmates and their friends or family.

The ACT government's proposal for Australia's first prison needle-exchange program is a bid to reduce the spread of serious blood-borne viruses, such as hepatitis C which can be passed on to other members of the community after detainees are released. The fact that such a measure is being discussed highlights the acknowledgement of how difficult it is to keep illicit drugs out of the jail.

Drugs are hidden in loose light fittings, on an inmate's body, in cracks and crevices in cells, or buried around the prison grounds. Illegal material is most commonly smuggled in during visiting hours.

But occasionally drug-filled tennis balls have been thrown over the perimeter fences, or offenders have hidden drugs in their body cavities just before being admitted to the jail. ''They're hidden everywhere, sometimes even in plain sight,'' one former inmate, given the pseudonym Alex, says. ''They don't do searches that often … they sometimes get intel on certain stuff, but that's rare too.''

Two inmates have separately confirmed that guards do not play much of a role in smuggling drugs into the jail. ''The fact of the matter is, it's easy to get it in anyway,'' Alex says. ''You get a guard involved, and it becomes really tricky.''

Needles are said to be harder to smuggle in than drugs, and once inside are usually buried around the grounds. Once they're inside, the needles become ''like gold'', according to a second inmate, given the pseudonym Chris.

''If you're in possession of a syringe then you do good business,'' Chris says. ''There are lots of fights about passing around not only the drugs but also the syringes, who has access to them, what you're prepared to pay the person who owns the syringe for the use of it. So it's a really good little business to have a syringe in jail … it's like having a blank cheque.''

In their report into the introduction of a needle and syringe exchange program, Michael Moore and Melanie Walker of the Public Health Association of Australia argue that a ''draconian regime'' would be required to eliminate the smuggling of drugs into the AMC.

The regime would have to include body cavity searches of everyone entering the jail, including staff and child visitors. Moore and Walker write that drugs can be concealed in tampons, babies' nappies and devices carried in the rectum. Thorough searches would also have to be conducted of food entering the prison.

''The currently earned privilege of private visits would need to come to an end and prisoners would not be able to touch their loved ones. Rather than remaining close to families (a key element in positive rehabilitation) there would be a considerable disincentive for prisoners to have visitors,'' Moore and Walker write.

Prisoner Chris agrees that it would be impossible to stop the smuggling without stopping all contact between prisoners and the outside world. ''For the most part, it's the prisoners getting them in,'' Chris says. ''Anybody would know that they're coming in with the prisoners, and that would be done a number of ways, certainly with visits.

''When people have contact with people, you won't stop anything, and you can't stop contact.''

But prisoners are divided over whether a needle exchange is a good idea. Chris tends to be supportive of the idea but Alex is worried that even with a one-for-one model, an exchange program would lead to a proliferation of needles in jail that could pose a danger to prisoners and guards alike.

Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher has backing for the proposed needle exchange from the Greens, whose health spokeswoman, Amanda Bresnan, wrote a policy paper on the issue in 2010. And this week the federal government's chief adviser on drugs policy, the Australian National Council on Drugs, praised the proposed trial and called for a greater focus on treating drug abuse and harm minimisation measures in jails.

Gallagher says steps are taken to keep drugs out of the AMC and rehabilitation programs are offered but providing clean needles is the right thing to do for those prisoners who still manage to use drugs.

She points out that it is extremely expensive to treat prisoners who contract hepatitis C, which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and cancer.

''We've sort of accepted in the community that once you try to reduce drugs - reduce the supply and reduce the demand - when all of that is done and dusted you still need harm-minimisation. That's what this seeks to do,'' Gallagher says. ''We're trying to get the dirty needles out. We're not trying to increase the number of needles in the jail but we'd like any injecting equipment that's in there to be clean or cleaner than it is.

''That's a really hard line for politicians to run and you can see what my political opponents have been doing with that.''

Gallagher insists an exchange will not lead to more needles in the AMC because prisoners will need to hand over a needle to a doctor before they are issued with a clean one.

Gallagher is a member of the Community and Public Sector Union whose members at the AMC have repeatedly warned they would not support any of the previous needle exchange models proposed by the government.

Their opposition is based largely on three main factors.

Firstly, they fear their safety would be compromised because, despite a one-for-one model, a needle exchange would lead to a proliferation of needles and increase the number of drug users at the jail.

Secondly, guards say they do not want to be complicit in an illegal activity that conflicts with their duties as law enforcement officers.

The government has tried to remove that fear by making the prison's doctors responsible for overseeing the exchange. But guards say even escorting a prisoner to the prison's health centre would make their members party to drug taking.

Finally, the guards fear that a needle and syringe program would undermine rehabilitation efforts and turn clean prisoners into heroin addicts. The government has sought to alleviate that concern by offering drug counselling, education and support to prisoners who are using the exchange.

CPSU regional director Vince McDevitt says the union is open to consultation, but he said guards were becoming increasingly frustrated with the notion they were ignorant, and were refusing to consider the evidence. ''We've listened to everyone, we've met with everyone, we've read all the reports, we've put in our submissions,'' McDevitt says. ''We set out in good faith to articulate the reasonable and genuine concerns of our members, and we come up against this criticism and unfair jibes trying to contextualise us as having our head in the sand.''

The ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate enterprise agreement contains a clause requiring union agreement before a prison needle exchange is implemented.

The union fears the government may try to remove the clause when the agreement comes up for negotiation next year, possibly with the support of non-prison staff in the directorate.

They've put Fair Work Australia on notice that they may seek scoping orders to effectively allow prison officers to enter into a separate enterprise agreement from the rest of the directorate.

Opposition corrections and health spokesman Jeremy Hanson is strongly opposed to a needle exchange in prisons.

Hanson does not support the kind of ''draconian'' anti-drug policies outlined by Moore and Walker, but he does say drug testing procedures have been too lax and prisoners who have been detected with drugs should expect to face additional security measures.

''I would do everything within my power to prevent drugs getting into the jail and I think that by doing so we would change the culture. I would not see it as it is now, where drugs and needles are the norm in the ACT jail. I would see that they would be the exception,'' he says.

Hanson says it is in the best interest of prisoners to be in as close to a drug-free environment as possible so that they can focus on rehabilitation programs.

''The government has a view that it's all about prisoner rights. But I think the best way to look after the prisoners' welfare is to make sure that they are in an environment that isn't proliferated with drugs and needles,'' he says.

A victory for the Liberals at the October 20 ACT election will mean an end to the possibility of an ACT prison needle exchange for at least four years.

The return of a Labor administration will see the government spending more time with prison guards, trying to convince them to accept a needle exchange.

Peter Jean is Health Reporter. Christopher Knaus is Police Reporter.