This edited volume provides the first ever comprehensive, international and multi-disciplinary review of the evidence regarding substance use and harms in people who cycle through prisons and jails. Grounded in solid evidence and a human rights framework, the text provides a roadmap for evidence-based reform

In most countries, problematic drug use is dealt with primarily as a criminal justice issue, rather than a health issue. Accordingly, a large proportion of people in prison have a history of alcohol, tobacco and/or illicit drug use and, despite the best efforts of correctional authorities, some continue to use these substances in prison, often in very risky ways. After release from prison, many relapse to risky substance use, and are at high risk of poor health outcomes, preventable death, or reincarceration. In this edited volume, for the first time we bring together 40 contributors from 10 countries to review what is known about alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use in people who cycle through prisons, and the harms associated with use of these substances. We consider some evidence-based responses to these harms - both in prison and after return to the community - and discuss their implications for policy reform. This book is international in scope and multi-disciplinary in character. It brings together and integrates the perspectives of public health and addictions researchers, criminologists and correctional leaders, epidemiologists, physicians, and human rights lawyers. Our contributors are unified in their commitment to evidence-informed policy - that is, doing what we know works. An overarching theme pervading all of the chapters is that people who cycle through prisons come from the community, and almost always return to the community. Their health problems are therefore our health problems; in other words, 'prisoner health is public health'.

Drugs in Prison is an essential handbook for all those who work with prisoners as well as students of penal drugs policy. Comprehensive and easy to use, it: provides up-to-date information on drugs, drug misuse and drugs legislation; outlines government and prison strategies for tackling drug misuse; describes the various methods being used to combat drugs in prison; reviews the effectiveness of these approaches and the performance of different establishments; discusses future strategy and practice. Also featured are extensive index, a glossary, and useful appendices, case studies and checklists, which service to reinforce key learning points.

Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far higher rates than the general population, those in or entering U.S. jails and prisons are prone to many health problems. This is a problem not just for them, but also for the communities from which they come and to which, in nearly all cases, they will return. Health and Incarceration is the summary of a workshop jointly sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) Committee on Law and Justice and the Institute of Medicine(IOM) Board on Health and Select Populations in December 2012. Academics, practitioners, state officials, and nongovernmental organization representatives from the fields of healthcare, prisoner advocacy, and corrections reviewed what is known about these health issues and what appear to be the best opportunities to improve healthcare for those who are now or will be incarcerated. The workshop was designed as a roundtable with brief presentations from 16 experts and time for group discussion. Health and Incarceration reviews what is known about the health of incarcerated individuals, the healthcare they receive, and effects of incarceration on public health. This report identifies opportunities to improve healthcare for these populations and provides a platform for visions of how the world of incarceration health can be a better place.

"Getting Wrecked provides a rich ethnographic account of women battling addiction as they cycle through jail, prison, and community treatment programs in Massachusetts. Since incarceration has become a predominant American social policy for managing the problem of drug use, including the opioid epidemic, this book examines how prisons and jails have attempted concurrent programs of punishment and treatment to deal with inmates struggling with a diagnosis of substance use disorder. An addiction physician and a medical anthropologist, Kimberly Sue powerfully illustrates the impacts of incarceration on women's lives as they seek well-being and better health while confronting lives marked by structural violence, gender inequity, and ongoing trauma"--Provided by publisher.

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.