Table DUP-4. Prevalence of injecting drug use within prison among prisoners

Country

Source/ref. (1)

Year

Definition and methodological comments (2)

Drug used (and if any:
restriction on base population)

% IDU

Belgium

 

1

2003

people reporting injecting drug use iduring the last incarceration.
Comment: survey in a random sample of 10 prisons (over a total of 38) among on remand, convicted and social defence (psychiatric cases) prisoners (n = 886).

any illicit drug

2

2

1999

People reporting injecting drug use in prison from a daily basis to a few times per week or per month.
Comment: survey in two prisons (1 male prison + 1 woman section in another prison) amongst voluntary prisoners (n = 246).

  

2

Greece

 

4

1996

People reporting injecting drug use while in prison.
Comment: survey in 10 prisons (n = 861).

 

20

5

1995

Injecting drug use in prison (based on self-reports and serum tests).
Comment: survey in 2 prisons amongst convicted voluntary prisoners (n = 544).

  

28

Ireland

5

1996

Men reporting injecting heroin use while in prison (current sentence).
Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n = 108).

heroin (males)

34

Latvia

1

2003

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison
Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n = 2867)

  

10

Luxembourg

 

1

1998

Regular intravenous drug use in prison (based on self-reports and cross-checking in personal files).
Comment: nationwide cross-sectional survey in 2 state prisons amongst the total population of prisoners (n = 362).

  

28

1

1998

First intravenous drug use in prison (based on self-reports and cross-checking in personal files).
Comment: nationwide cross-sectional survey in 2 state prisons amongst the total population of prisoners (n = 362).

  

9

Hungary

1

1997

People reporting injecting drug use while in prison.
Comment: national survey in a sample of all prisons amongst adult male prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n = 951).

any illicit drug (adult males)

0.2

Austria

 

1

 

1999

 

Injecting drug use within prison.
Comment: national survey in a selection of representative prisons: 4 for male adults (n = 143), 2 for female adults (n = 69) and 5 for male youth (n = 51); convicted and on remand.

(male adults)

15

(female adults)

6

(male youth)

8

Portugal

1

2001

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison.
Comment: natiowide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n = 2057).

any illicit drug

11

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

 

1

2001

Women reporting having ever injected drugs during this term of imprisonment.
Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n = 301).

(females)

3

3

 

1997-1998

 

People reporting having ever injected drugs inside prison.
Comment: survey in 8 prisons: 6 adult male prisons (n = 2745), 1 female prison (n = 400) and 1 male young (under 21 years) offenders prison (n = 714).

(adult males)

7

(females)

7

(young males)

1

United Kingdom (Scotland)

 

9

2004

People reporting drug use during the current imprisonment.
Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n = 4792).

any illicit drug

5

10

2003

People reporting having ever injected drugs during the current imprisonment.
Comment: national survey in 16 prisons among all prisoners available at the time of the survey (n = 4741).

any illicit drug

11

11

1991-1996

Men reporting having ever injected in prison.
Comment: survey in 6 male prisons (n = 2286).

(males)

18

11

1991-1996

Women reporting having ever injected in prison.
Comment: survey in one female prison (n = 132).

(females)

26

11

1991-1996

Young offenders reporting having ever injected in prison.
Comment: survey in 2 young offenders institutions (n = 562).

(young offenders)

5

Notes:     

(1) For sources and bibliographic references, the numbering refers to [Table DUP-0].  

(2) Caution should be applied when considering that a survey is said to be 'national' as this refers to its intended geographical coverage, but does not mean it is necessarily representative of the national situation, which would depend on any sampling procedures adopted. Note that the size of the prison population surveyed is not available for most of the studies displayed in this table, and sample sizes reflect different proportions of the population in different countries.

Sources:     

For access to sources and bibliographic references, refer to [Table DUP-0].

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