Dealing with Drugs in Prisons – What is going wrong? How can we do better?

Summary:

Dealing, drugs, prisons – our concept of ‘dealing with’ is one of reducing harms from drugs, particularly mind altering drugs for people in prison. People who are prisoners ‘deal with drugs’ in quite other ways. To some extent, patterns of drug use and abuse in prison mirror those in wider society, in particular patterns change over time¹. Current concerns, however, have never been higher. A recent house of Commons Justice Committee report² described the trade and use of illicit drugs as ‘endemic’, 16% of deaths in prison as directly drug related and over 10% of men and 20% of women first coming to illicit drugs whilst in prison; two-thirds of deaths within two weeks of leaving prison are drug-related. The most lucrative in-prison drug trade is of illicit drugs but prescribed medication is also subject to abuse.

This webinar explores those tragic, potentially avoidable deaths. It considers the role of prescribing medications and seeking to contain at least the unintended harms if this becomes uncontrolled. It focuses on what prisoners themselves say about managing their drug use in prison.

• https://cdn.websitebuilder.service.justice.gov.uk/uploads/sites/19/2025/08/Substance-misuse-2015.pdf
• https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50009/documents/269349/default/

Schedule:

Dealing with Drugs in Prisons - What is going wrong? How can we do better?

17.00 Introductions – Professor Pamela Taylor, Crime In Mind

17.10 Learning from unintended unnatural deaths in prisons – Professor Susanne MacGregor

17.40 The pains of rationalising prescribed medicines when men are received into prison – Amber O’Brien MRCPharm and Dr Justin Lawson

18.00 What do the men in prison say? – Dr Kim Barnett

18.30 Developing from these lessons – Lead Discussant – Professor Rob Poole

18.45 General discussion

19.00 Close