Studies of drug users in prison

Overview of the data | Tables | Supplementary downloadable tables | Methods and definitions

Overview of the data

The links above give access to the tables in the bulletin and the supplementary downloadable tables in the section dealing with drug users in prisons, as well as to a description of the methods and definitions used in compiling this data. A brief, summary overview is provided below. See also the side navigation bar for links to all chapters.

This section reports on various studies of prison inmates in different EU Member States and Norway over the past decade. Results shown in the studies cover a range of drugs including opiates, cocaine, cannabis and poly-drug use, and prevalence is estimated for a range of inmate sub-populations: injectors, males, females, youth. A further, more complete table is available in the supplementary tables to the bulletin, indexed below.

The first table of the section (Table DUP-0) gives the source bibliographic references for the studies reported in tables DUP-1 to DUP-5.

Summary points

Lifetime prevalence of drug use among prisoners is reported in most EU studies to be over 50 %. It varies widely, however, from 22 % to 86 % between prison populations, types of detention centres and countries. Cannabis is the most frequently reported illicit drug.
The prevalence of regular drug use or dependence prior to imprisonment ranges from 8 % to 73 %. Lifetime prevalence of injecting drug use among prisoners is generally reported to be within a 15 to 50 % range.
Studies available show that between 8 % and 60 % of inmates report having used drugs while in prison, and 10 to 42 % report regular drug use in prison. In addition, between 0.2 % and 34 % of inmates report having injected drugs while in prison.