Interventions to address HIV in prisons: Drug dependence treatments
Evidence for action technical paper
In many countries, prisoners use drugs while incarcerated, including by injecting (for details, see the comprehensive paper on Effectiveness of Interventions to Address HIV in Prisons). At least in part this is due to the fact that a substantial proportion of prisoners are drug dependent. A recent systematic review of studies reporting prevalence of alcohol or substance use or dependence in prisoners during the previous year showed that estimates of drug abuse or dependence in male prisoners (eight studies, n= 4,293) range from 10.0 to 48%; in female prisoners (six studies, n= 3,270), from 30.3 to 60.4%.