Assistance to drug users in prison

Assistance to drug users in prison

The current EU Action Plan on Drugs 2009-2012 defines access to health care for drug users in prison as an objective at European level (Part II: Demand Reduction, objective 9: Provide Access to health care for drug users in prison to prevent and reduce health-related harms associated with drug abuse), and addresses the coordination of EU governments’ actions with regard to prison health policies as well as implementation of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and rehabilitation services in prison (action 21), and the standardisation of monitoring approaches and tools with regard to health problems and service provision in prison (action 22).

Today drugs are seen as one of the main problems of the prison system in the European Union. Drugs are widespread among inmates, used either as addictive substances or to cope with lack of work and stress and boredom behind bars. Many prisoners report that drugs are the central currency in prison and are easily available.

These are some of the issues underlined in a 2001 EMCDDA report on "Assistance to drug users in European Union prisons". The study was the first of its kind at EU level and contains primary information and basic data on the health status of prisoners as well as on drug use and drug-related harm, prevention and treatment practices, best practices, standards and evaluation initiatives. The report also highlighted some useful prison-related websites. An abridged version (169KB) of the report is available, as well as a list of information sources (91KB) used in its compilation. The complete study has been published by the European Network for Drug and HIV/AIDS Services in Prison (ENDHASP) in cooperation with the EMCDDA and is entitled 'An Overview Study: Assistance to Drug Users in European Union Prisons' (ISBN 1902114035). It is available from Cranstoun Drug Services, 4th floor Broadway House, 112-134 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1RL, UK. E-mail: euronet@cranstoun.org.uk

An update of the report was published by the EMCDDA in June 2005 - "Inventory of European of social  and health policies, measures and actions concerning drug users in prisons" -  based on the results of a survey carried out between July 2003 to July 2004 using a protocol developed by the EMCDDA aimed to monitor availability and characteristics of services in the EU Member States targeting drug users in prisons. The exercise was carried out before 1 May 2004 and as result the inventory cover only those countries that were EU members before the last EU enlargement. The same protocol was taken into consideration in a further study conducted in collaboration with EMCDDA and published in November 2005, which aimed to collect information in the "new" member states - "Data Collection to develop an inventory of European of social  and health policies, measures and actions concerning drug users in prisons in the recently incorporated Member States to the EU".

In 2006, DG SANCO contracted (call for tender Ref: 2006-92638) the Centre for Interdisciplinary Addiction Research of University Medical Centre in Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany) to lead a Consortium of agencies and experts, to carry out work in the field of drugs and prison health. As a result of this contract, and in close cooperation with DG SANCO and the EMCDDA, the Consortium produced a report on the status-quo of prevention, treatment and harm reduction services in prisons and on reintegration services for persons on release from prisons, which was published in 2008 .