Prisoners with drug abuse problem

[Guest guest]

Dear group member,

Increasingly, drug abusers, addicts and persons affected by health consequences

of injecting drug use are landing in prisons.

A Rapid Assessment Survey of Drug Abuse in India conducted in 14 cities in

India, published in year 2002, reports between 48 and 85 per cent of drug users

had ever been in police lock-ups and between 41 and 73 per cent had been in

police lock-up in the past year. Between 4 and 67 per cent had ever been to

prison and a significant proportion had been imprisoned in the past one year.

This report observes that: " Prison based programmes are an urgent priority and

harm prevention interventions need to be rigorously implemented in prison

settings. Training of law enforcement officials and partnerships with law

enforcement officials are equally important strategies to ensure a consistent

and effective approach to the problems of drug abuse " .

AASRA: An Association for Scientific Research on the Addictions has been running

Therapeutic Communities for drug addicts in New Delhi's Tihar Prison since 1993.

At present, about 700 addicts are in these communities at any one time. Most of

these are remand prisoners.

Prisons in India have between 70 and 85 per cent prisoners on remand. Few

prisons have facilities for treatment of drug addicts. Facilities for testing

for HIV/AIDS, voluntary or otherwise, rarely exist.

Prison personnel resist any treatment and rehabilitation programmes for

prisoners on remand, citing their role as custodians for these prisoners, and

citing that rehabilitation programmes should be restricted for those prisoners

who have been convicted.

There is a need for promoting treatment and rehabilitation services for drug

addicts and/or HIV/AIDS affected persons in Prisons. The Prison Drug Abuse forum

reaches out to interested persons with experience in prisons, and those

interested in setting up services in prisons.

Do you have any experience with dealing with prisons or prisoners? Sharing your

experience would be most valuable in building a consensus for prison services.

To join the Prison Drug Abuse Forum, please leave your e-mail address at:

subscribe/prisondrugabuse

Yours sincerely

Dr H S Sethi,

Director, AASRA: An Association for Scientific Research on the Addictions

E-mail: i " <sethihs@...>

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