BMJ 1997;315:21-24 (5 July)

Papers

Harm reduction measures and injecting inside prison versus mandatory drugs testing: results of a cross sectional anonymous questionnaire survey

A Graham Bird, consultant immunologist,a Sheila M Gore, senior statistician,b Sharon J Hutchinson, statistician,c Stephanie C Lewis, statistician,c Sheila Cameron, clinical virologist,d Sheila Burns, clinical virologist,e  on behalf of the European Commission Network on HIV infection and hepatitis in prison

a Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LJ, b MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge CB2 2SR, c MRC-BIAS, Edinburgh EH9 3JN, d Regional Virus Laboratory, Glasgow G20 9NB, e Regional Virus Laboratory, Edinburgh EH10 5SB

Correspondence to: Dr Gore sheila.gore@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk

Objectives: (a) To determine both the frequency of injecting inside prison and use of sterilising tablets to clean needles in the previous four weeks; (b) to assess the efficiency of random mandatory drugs testing at detecting prisoners who inject heroin inside prison; (c) to determine the percentage of prisoners who had been offered vaccination against hepatitis B.
Design: Cross sectional willing anonymous salivary HIV surveillance linked to a self completion risk factor questionnaire.
Setting: Lowmoss prison, Glasgow, and Aberdeen prison on 11 and 30 October 1996.
Subjects: 293 (94%) of all 312 inmates at Lowmoss and 146 (93%) of all 157 at Aberdeen, resulting in 286 and 143 valid questionnaires.
Main outcome measures: Frequency of injecting inside prison in the previous four weeks by injector inmates who had been in prison for at least four weeks.
Results: 116 (41%) Lowmoss and 53 (37%) Aberdeen prisoners had a history of injecting drug use but only 4% of inmates (17/395; 95% confidence interval 2% to 6%) had ever been offered vaccination against hepatitis B. 42 Lowmoss prisoners (estimated 207 injections and 258 uses of sterilising tablets) and 31 Aberdeen prisoners (229 injections, 221 uses) had injected inside prison in the previous four weeks. The prisons together held 112 injector inmates who had been in prison for more than four weeks, of whom 57 (51%; 42% to 60%) had injected in prison in the past four weeks; their estimated mean number of injections was 6.0 (SD 5.7). Prisoners injecting heroin six times in four weeks will test positive in random mandatory drugs testing on at most 18 days out of 28.
Conclusions: Sterilising tablets and hepatitis B vaccination should be offered to all prisoners. Random mandatory drugs testing seriously underestimates injector inmates' harm reduction needs.

Key messages

  • Half of injector inmates of two Scottish prisons who had been in prison for more than four weeks had injected in the previous four weeks—an average of six times

  • Injector inmates used sterilising tablets to clean injecting equipment as often as they injected

  • Only 4% of inmates had ever been offered vaccination against hepatitis B

  • Vaccination against hepatitis B and sterilising tablets are prisoners' rights

  • Random mandatory drugs testing is likely to detect only one third to two thirds of heroin injectors in prison and so seriously underestimates injector inmates' drug reduction needs


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  • DUKE, K. (2001). Evidence-Based Policy Making?: The Interplay between Research and the Development of Prison Drugs Policy. Criminal Justice 1: 277-300 [Abstract]  
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