Key facts

• The number of people in prison for drug offences is high and growing. At the end of October 2007, 15% of male sentenced prisoners had been convicted of drug offences. In 1995 drug offences accounted for 10% of male sentenced prisoners. For the sentenced female prison population at the end of Octobe 2007 drug offences accounted for 30% of prisoners, by far the largest proportion. In 1995 they accounted for 27% of the sentenced female prison population. 
• There is a much wider group of prisoners whose offence is in some way drug related. Shoplifting, burglary, vehicle crime and theft can be linked to drug misuse. Over half of prisoners (55%) report committing offences connected to their drug taking, with the need for money to buy drugs the most commonly cited factor.
• In 18% of violent crimes reported to the 2004/5 British Crime Survey, the victim believed that the offender was under the influence of drugs. More than a quarter (29%) of robbery victims believed their attacker to be under the influence of drugs.
• Epidemiological studies show that around 55% of those received into custody are problematic drug users. That is annual throughput of 70,000 a year, or 39,000 at anyone time. According to the Home Office that means around one sixth of problematic drug users are in prison at any one time. 
• A study for the Home Office found that almost half of recently sentenced male prisoners (47%) had used heroin, crack or cocaine in the 12 months prior to imprisonment. Heroin was the drug most likely to be used on a daily basis.  Overall, 73% of respondents had taken an illegal drug in the year before entering prison.
• Half of Scottish prisoners have reported that they had used drugs in prison at some point in the past. 74% of these said that their use had decreased while in prison.
• In some inner city local prisons as many as eight out of ten men are found to have class A drugs in their system on reception  and in the local women’s prison, Styal, the same number of new arrivals are thought to have drug problems.  However a range of studies places the mean figure at 55% – this equates to approximately 74,250 people who use class A drugs entering prison each year (based on annual receptions of 135,000).
• Many prisoners have never received help with their drug problems. According to the Social Exclusion Unit officers at HMP Manchester have estimated that 70% of prisoners come into the jail with a drugs misuse problem but that 80% of these have never had any contact with drug treatment services.
• Drug use amongst prisoners in custody is reported to be high. A recent Home Office study found that four out ten prisoners said they had used drugs at least once whilst in their current prison, a quarter had used in the past month and 16%  in the past week. Cannabis and opiates were the drugs most often used. Almost a third of prisoners reported cannabis use and one in five opiate use in their current prison, while 9% and 10% respectively reported using these drugs in the past week. 
• All prisoners are subject to random mandatory drug tests. 9% of the prison population tested positive from random mandatory drug tests compared with over 20% 10 years ago.  But a recent Home Office study found that ‘mandatory drug testing results generally underestimate the level of drug misuse as reported by prisoners’. 
• Concerns have been raised about the quality of detoxification, especially for prisoners who have been dependent on crack cocaine.  Research has found that arrangements for detoxification appear to vary considerably between different prisons.
• In 2006-07, 7,675 drug treatment completions were delivered. This represented an achievement of 29.6% in excess of target. 
• Nine out of ten young adult prisoners say they used drugs prior to imprisonment but only one in three Young Offender Institutions provide intensive drug treatment programmes.
• Transfers between prisons due to overcrowding often disrupt drug treatment. Recent research found that a third of prisons were unlikely to be able to continue the treatment of prisoners transferred to them.
• Drug use on release from prison is very high. One survey of prisoners who had mostly served short sentences and had used drugs in the 12 months before imprisonment, found that 77% admitted taking illegal drugs since release.
• The Social Exclusion Unit found that the ‘chances of continuing drugs programmes and support on release are very slim’ and concluded, ‘prisoners are often viewed as ‘new cases’ when they are released and have to join the back of the queue’.  The Home Office has no comprehensive tracking systems in place to monitor access to community drug treatment but is currently developing work in this area.
• A Home Office study has found that the risk of death for men released from prison is forty times higher in the first week of release than for the general population. This is ascribed largely to drug-related deaths. 342 deaths were recorded among their sample group of men in the year after release whereas in a sample matched for age and gender in the general population, only 46 deaths would be expected. 
• According to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, funding for the new integrated drug treatment system, to provide interventions and support for those coming off drugs is nearly 60% less than was hoped for.  £77.3 million was provided for custodial drug treatment during 2006-07  up from £60.3 million in 2005/06.
• Offenders that receive residential drug treatment are 45% less likely to re-offend after release than comparable offenders receiving prison sentences. 
• In almost half of violent crimes (48%) the victim believed the offender or offenders to be under the influence of alcohol. 
• Nearly two-thirds of sentenced male prisoners (63%) and two-fifths of female sentenced prisoners (39%) admit to hazardous drinking which carries the risk of physical or mental harm. Of these, about half have a severe alcohol dependency.
• 34% of prisoners in Scotland have indicated that their drinking was a problem outside, and 35% that they had to have a drink first thing in the morning. 44% reported that they were drunk at the time of their offence. 20% indicated that they received help/treatment for their alcohol problems whilst in prison. 
• 44% of young adults (18-24) are binge drinkers. 27% of binge drinkers admitted committing an offence in the past 12 months – compared with 13% of drinkers who did not binge.
• Children who have begun binge drinking by the age of 16 are 90% more likely to have criminal convictions by the age of 30.
• It is common for prisoners who have alcohol problems to also have drug problems. Just over a quarter of male prisoners and about a fifth of female prisoners who are hazardous drinkers are dependent on at least one type of illicit drug.
• In 2002/2003 an estimated 6,400 prisoners undertook alcohol detoxification programmes, and an estimated 7,000 more prisoners undertook detoxification for combined alcohol and drug misuse.
• There are no specific accredited alcohol treatment programmes with ring-fenced funding in prisons in England and Wales.
• A Prison Service survey conducted in 2003, that received responses from half of all prisons in England and Wales, identified only one prison that had a dedicated alcohol strategy.
• In December 2004 the Prison Service published its long awaited Alcohol Strategy for Prisoners, which focuses primarily on improving consistency of measures to prevent future hazardous drinking across the prison estate and builds on existing good practice. But it has not been supported by additional resources.
• Misuse of alcohol and irresponsible drinking result in economic and social costs in the region of £18 – 20 billion per year.

For full references, please see the Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile