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Table DUP-4. Prevalence of injecting drug use within prison among prisoners, 2000–08

CountryYearSource/Reference (1)Definition and methodological comments (2)Drug used
(and if any: restriction on base population)% IDU
Belgium20062Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use within prison. 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 drug4
20033Persons 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 drug2
Bulgaria20061Persons registered (in the judicial and medical files) as injecting drug users in prison (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among on remand detainees (n= 2562).any illicit drug8
heroin8
Germany20071Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison. Comment: survey in 6 prisons in 3/16 federal states in a quota sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1457).any illicit drug22
Spain20061Persons reporting injecting drug use within the last 30 days inside prison. Comment: nationwide survey in 66 prisons in a random sample of prisoners (n= 4934) (women overrepresented).any illicit drug3
Latvia20031Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison. Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2867).any illicit drug10
Luxembourg20051Lifetime intravenous drug users within prison (based on self-reports) Comment: nationwide cross-sectional survey in 2 state prisons amongst the total population of prisoners (n= 246).any illicit drug31
Hungary20081Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison. Comment: national cross-sectional survey in 22 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult both males and females convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 503)any illicit drug0.7
20081Persons reporting injecting drug use within the last year in prison. Comment: national cross-sectional survey in 22 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult both males and females convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 503)any illicit drug0.2
20042Persons reporting injecting drug use 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)1
Poland20012Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison. Comment: nationwide survey (38 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted adult male prisoners (n= 1189)any illicit drug (adult males)3
Portugal20071Persons reporting lifetime injecting drug use in prison. Comment: nationwide survey (44 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1986).Cocaine2
Heroin2
20012Persons 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)2004-20051Women reporting injecting drug use in prison. Comment: survey in 2 remand prisons for women among all new receptions during certain pre-defined periods (n= 505).any illicit drug (females)7
20012Women reporting having injected drugs within 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)1
United Kingdom (England and Wales)2001-20024Persons reporting reporting injecting drug use in the current prison. Comment: survey in 31 prisons in a representative sample of male and female remanded and sentenced prisoners (n= 2266).any illicit drug1
United Kingdom (Scotland)200811Persons reporting injecting drug use in the last month during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4318).any illicit drug3
200712Persons reporting injected drug use in the last month during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4692).any illicit drug2
200613Persons reporting injected drug use in the llast month during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4778).any illicit drug3
200514Persons reporting injected drug use in the last month during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4831).any illicit drug3
200415Persons reporting injected drug use in the last month during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4793).any illicit drug5
200316Persons 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 drug11

Notes:

 (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. 

Sources:

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

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Page last updated: Wednesday, 23 June 2010