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Table DUP-2. Prevalence of lifetime injecting drug use among prisoners, 1995 to 2004

Country

Year

Source/ref. (1)

Definition and methodological comments (2)

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

% IDU

Belgium

2003

1

People reporting injecting drug use (prior/within prison).
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

 

15

Belgium

1997

3

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in one prison among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 115).

 

 

22

Belgium

1993

4

People reporting having ever injected drugs.
Comment: survey in one prison among voluntary prisoners entering prison (n= 1627).

 

 

15

Germany

1997

2

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in one prison among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 437).

 

 

33

Greece

1996

4

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

 

 

34

Greece

1995

5

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

 

 

69

Spain

1997

6

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in one prison among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 101).

 

 

47

Spain

1995

6

Injecting drug users.
Comment: survey in one prison (n= 1183).

 

 

31

France

2003

1

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use.
Comment: nationwide survey in 134 prisons (out of 187) among a representative sample of on remand and convicted people entering prison (n= 6087).

 

 

7

France

1997

2

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use.
Comment: nationwide survey among 86 % of people entering prison (n= 8728)

 

 

12

France

1998

3

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in 4 prisons (n= 1212).

 

 

12

France

1996

3

People reporting lifetime injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in one prison (n= 574).

 

 

23

France

1997

4

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 960).

 

 

14

Ireland

1999

2

People reporting injecting drug use (injector status known).
Comment: survey in 5 of the 7 Irish committal prisons (n= 593).

any illicit drug

 

29

Ireland

1998

3

People reporting injecting drug use (injector status known).
Comment: survey in 9 prisons: all the 5 high risk prisons and a random sample of the medium risk prisons (n= 1205).

any illicit drug

 

43

Ireland

1996

5

Men reporting ever engaged in injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n= 108).

males

 

56

Italy

1997

9

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 678).

 

 

30

Latvia

2003

1

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

 

 

20

Hungary

2004

1

People reporting injecting drug use prior to imprisonment.
Comment: national survey in 11 prisons among a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609).

any illicit drug (adult males)

 

7

Hungary

2004

1

People reporting injecting drug use (both prior to and in prison).
Comment: national survey in 11 prisons among a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609).

any illicit drug (adult males)

 

8

Hungary

1997

2

People reporting injecting drug use prior to imprisonment.Comment: national survey in a sample of all prisons among adult male prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 951).

any illicit drug (adult males)

 

1

Austria

1999

1

Injecting drug use prior to imprisonment.
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)

 

26

(female adults)

 

32

(male youth)

 

9

Austria

1996

2

Intravenous drug users.
Comment: estimated by experts.

 

 

15

Portugal

2001

1

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

any illicit drug

 

27

Portugal

1997

2

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n = 535).

 

 

52

Finland

2000

2

People reporting injecting drug use (ever used).
Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 1612).

poly-drug users

 

39

heroin/opiates

 

5

amphetamines

 

56

Sweden

1997

2

People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment.
Comment: survey in 9 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 305).

 

 

65

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

2001

1

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

any illicit drug (females)

 

38

cocaine/crack (females)

 

5

heroin/opiates (females)

 

35

amphetamines (females)

 

7

other tranquilizers (females)

 

1

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

1997-1998

3

People reporting having ever injected drugs (inside or outside prison).
Comment: survey in 8 prisons: 6 adult male prisons (n= 2769), 1 female prison (n= 407) and 1 male young (under 21 years) offenders prison (n= 714).

(adult male)

 

24

(female)

 

29

(young male)

 

4

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

1997

5

People reporting having ever injected drugs.
Comment: nationwide survey in all 131 prisons (n= 3142).

 

(3)

23-40

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

1996

6

Men entering prison reporting a history of injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in one prison (n= n.a.).

(males)

 

29

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

1995

7

Men entering prison reporting a history of injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in 3 prisons (n= n.a.).

(males)

 

15

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

Men reporting a history of injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in 6 male prisons (n= 2286).

(males)

 

32

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

Women reporting a history of injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in one female prison (n= 132).

(females)

 

46

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

Young offenders reporting a history of injecting drug use.
Comment: survey in 2 young offenders institutions (n= 562).

(young offenders)

 

18

Notes:

(1) For sources and bibliographic references, the numbering 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.

(3) Results are provided for 4 different sub-groups of population: male remanded, male sentenced, female remanded, female sentenced. Women and men on remand represent a small proportion of the prison population, and thus these groups were over-sampled. Ranges reported here represent the minimum and maximum values obtained across the 4 sub-groups.

See also 'General notes for interpreting data' on the Explanatory notes and help page.

Sources:

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

Data filter | duptab03-en.xml