Table DUP-2. Prevalence of lifetime injecting drug use among prisoners, 2000–07

Country	Year	Source/ref. (1)	Definition and methodological comments (2)	Drug used
				(and if any: restriction on base population)	Note	% IDU
Belgium	2006	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: national survey in all the 32 Belgian prisons in a representative sample of 10% of adult prisoners, including remanded, sentenced and mentally disordered prisoners, both males and females (n = 902).	any illicit drug		18
	2003	2	Persons reporting injecting drug use (prior/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 drug		15
Bulgaria	2006	1	Persons 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 drug		7
	2006	1	Persons 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).	cocaine		0.04
				heroin		4
				amphetamines		0.03
				ecstasy		0.01
	2004	5	Persons 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= 11521).	any illicit drug	(4)	2
				heroin	(4)	1
				other drugs than heroin	(4)	0.9
Germany	2007	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 6 prisons in 3/16 federal states in a quota sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1457)	any illicit drug		31
France	2003	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: nationwide survey in 134 prisons (out of 187) among a representative sample of on remand and convicted Persons entering prison (n= 6087).			7
Italy	2001-02	12	Persons reporting a history of injecting drug use. Comment: cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of males and females in 8 prisons in different areas of Italy (n = 973).	any illicit drugs		30
Latvia	2003	1	Persons 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	Persons 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
	2004	1	Persons 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
Poland	2001	2	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey (38 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted adult male prisoners (n= 1189)	any illicit drug (adult males)		6
Portugal	2007	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey (44 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1986).	Cocaine		12
				Heroin		13
	2007	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior/within prison. Comment: nationwide survey (44 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1986).	any illicit drug		21
	2001	2	Persons 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
Romania	2006	1	Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use prior/within prison. Comment: survey in 27 prisons among prisoners (n=3218)	any illicit drug		6
Finland	2000	2	Persons reporting injecting drug use (ever used). Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 1612).	polydrug users		39
				heroin/opiates		5
				amphetamines		56
United Kingdom (England)	2004-05	1	Women reporting lifetime injecting drug use. Comment: survey in 2 remand prisons for women among all new receptions during certain pre-defined periods (n = 505).	any illicit drug (females)		38
United Kingdom (England)	2001	2	women reporting having ever injected drugs. Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n= 301). (from Borrill et al., 2003a).	any illicit drug (females)		31
United Kingdom (England)	2001	2	Women reporting having injected drugs outside prison only. Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n= 301). (from Borrill et al., 2003a).	any illicit drug (females)		29

Notes:

 n.a.: not available. 

 (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. 

 (4) Bulgaria: due the 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.  

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