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

Belgium

1999

2

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) among voluntary prisoners (n= 246)

 

2

Greece

1996

4

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

 

20

Greece

1995

5

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

 

28

Ireland

1996

5

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

2003

1

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

1998

1

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 among the total population of prisoners (n= 362)

 

28

Luxembourg

1998

1

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 among the total population of prisoners (n= 362)

 

9

Hungary

2004

1

people reporting injecting drug use 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)

1

Hungary

1997

2

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

any illicit drug (adult males)

0.2

Austria

1999

1

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

2001

1

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

any illicit drug

11

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

2001

1

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

United Kingdom (England & Wales)

1997-1998

3

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)

2005

9

people reporting injecting drug use during the last month in prison
Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 1415)

any illicit drug

3

United Kingdom (Scotland)

2004

9

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

any illicit drug

5

United Kingdom (Scotland)

2003

10

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

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

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

(males)

18

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

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

(females)

26

United Kingdom (Scotland)

1991-1996

11

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.

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 | duptab05-en.xml