Drug-users and the Prison System (From Drugs and British Society: Responses to a Social Problem in the Eighties, P 116-128, 1989, Susanne MacGregor, ed. -- See NCJ-124945)

• NCJ Number: 124953
• Author(s): S Tippell
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of the use of British policy regarding drug abuse concludes that the imprisonment of drug users is a major component of national drug policy and is a response that is inappropriately detached from other types of intervention and from the community outside.

Abstract

This situation is undesirable for everyone involved, because drug users miss opportunities to explore more fulfilling and productive ways of living and prison staff face an increasingly volatile situation. In addition, drug agencies suffer financially due to the use of scarce resources for incarceration and victims of drug-related crime have little reassurance that it will not recur. Finally, every citizen shares the enormous financial costs of a prison system that is a disgrace to an advanced society. Many options are available that could improve the situation. Some of these include increasing the use of the existing alternatives to incarceration, beginning rehabilitation during the prison sentence, and improving the links between prison and community services like housing.