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Table DUP-2. Prevalence of lifetime injecting drug use among prisoners, 1995-2006

CountryYearRef. (1)Definition and methodological comments (2)Drug used - (and if any: restriction on base population) % IDU
Belgium20031People reporting injecting drug use (prior to/within prison). Comment: survey in a random sample of 10 prisons (over a total of 38) amongst on remand, convicted and social defence (psychiatric cases) prisoners (n= 886).any illicit drug15
Belgium19973People reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in one prison amongst on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 115).22
Belgium19934People reporting having ever injected drugs. Comment: survey in one prison amongst voluntary prisoners entering prison (n= 1627).15
Germany19972People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in one prison among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 437).33
Greece19964People reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: survey in 10 prisons (n= 861).34
Greece19955Injecting drug use prior to imprisonment (based on self-reports and serum tests). Comment: survey in 2 prisons amongst convicted voluntary prisoners (n= 544).69
Spain19976People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in one prison among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 101).47
Spain19956Injecting drug users. Comment: survey in one prison (n= 1183).31
France20031People 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
France19972People reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: nationwide survey among 86% of people entering prison (n= 8728)12
France19983People reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 4 prisons (n= 1212).12
France19963People reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: survey in one prison (n= 574).23
France19974People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 960).14
Ireland19992People reporting injecting drug use (injector status known). Comment: survey in 5 of the 7 Irish committal prisons (n= 593).any illicit drug29
Ireland19983People 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 drug43
Ireland19965Men reporting ever engaged in injecting drug use. Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n= 108).males56
Italy19979People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 678).30
Latvia20031People 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
Hungary20041People reporting injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in 11 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609).any illicit drug (adult males)7
Hungary20041People reporting injecting drug use (both prior to and in prison). Comment: national survey in 11 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609).any illicit drug (adult males)8
Hungary19972People reporting injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in a sample of all prisons amongst adult male prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 951).any illicit drug (adult males)1
Austria19991Injecting 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
Austria19962Intravenous drug users. Comment: estimated by experts.15
Portugal20011People 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
Portugal19972People reporting injecting drug use (lifetime) prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n = 535).52
Finland20002People reporting injecting drug use (ever used). Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 1612).poly-drug users39
heroin/opiates5
amphetamines56
Sweden19972People 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 and Wales)20011Women 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 and Wales)1997-19983People 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 and Wales)19975People reporting having ever injected drugs. Comment: nationwide survey in all 131 prisons (n= 3142).(3) 23-40
United Kingdom (England and Wales)19966Men entering prison reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: survey in one prison (n= n.a.).(males)29
United Kingdom (England and Wales)19957Men entering prison reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: survey in 3 prisons (n= n.a.).(males)15
United Kingdom (Scotland)1991-199611Men reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: survey in 6 male prisons (n= 2286).(males)32
United Kingdom (Scotland)1991-199611Women reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: survey in one female prison (n= 132).(females)46
United Kingdom (Scotland)1991-199611Young offenders reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: survey in 2 young offenders institutions (n= 562).(young offenders)18
Bulgaria20061People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment (self-report). Comment: national survey in 6 prisons among on remand detainees (n= 3733) Any illicit drug7
Bulgaria20061People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among on remand detainees (n= 7274) cocaine0.04
heroin4
amphetamines0.03
ecstasy0.01
Bulgaria20045People in contact with health services, psychologists and social workers reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in all prisons in Bulgaria (n= 11.521)any illicit drug(4)2
heroin(4)1
other drugs than heroin(4)0.9

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. 

 (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. 

 (4) Bulgaria: due to fear of sanction it is likely that drug use is under-reported. 

Sources:

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

Page last updated: Friday, 09 November 2007