Caught clean-handed: UK prison bans anti-swine flu hand gel after inmates use it to get drunk

UK prison bans hand gel inmates used to get high

LONDON — A British prison says a bunch of inmates have been caught with their hands clean — using hand sanitizing gel to get drunk.

Peter McParlin of the Prison Officers Association says inmates were using it to make illicit alcohol.

The gel had been distributed around the prison to stop the spread of the swine flu virus. McParlin said on Thursday that giving inmates access to a gel with an alcohol content was unwise.

The prison has now banned inmates from using it. McParlin said the use of illicit concoctions made by mixing alcohol with fruit, water and sugar was as bad as drug use — or worse.

The claims of prison boozing follow reports of bare-knuckle boxing for money at the facility, the Verne prison in Dorset, in southwest England.