Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Prisons today contain large proportions of drug users. Drug Use and Prisons provides the first comprehensive account of patterns of drug use and risk behaviours in prisons, and of the different responses to this feature of prison life. Experts from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Australia, from a variety of professional backgrounds, provide an international perspective on this ongoing problem.
In the past, prisoners were one of the 'hidden populations' of drug users. But with increasing recognition of the potential for the prison setting to act as a conduit for HIV and transmission within the prisoner population and thence into the community, failure to face this prospect is no longer an option for public health researchers or policymakers, nor for those working in the prison system.
Synopsis
First Published in 2000. In this title, the author argues that drug users end up in gaol for many reasons, but in the most general terms they divide the drug-using part of a prison population along three lines. Those incarcerated because of their use or possession of drugs with intent to supply, those gaoled for offences other than drug use, but who happen to be involved in drug use and those who acquired their drug habit whilst in gaol. They argue that whilst prisons offer the opportunity to influence drug habits in a positive way, it can also produce exactly the opposite effect.