NCJ Number
177125
Date Published
1998
Length
68 pages
Annotation
The mandatory drug testing program introduced in all prisons in England and Wales by March 1996 was studied with respect to its impact on the nature and extent of inmate drug abuse in five prisons, staff responses, the prison drug strategy, and inmate drug treatment.
Abstract
Information was collected from 148 inmates who had been recently tested for drug use and from 146 correctional personnel. One hundred eleven inmates reported using one or more drugs at some time while in custody. The increased risk of detection and sanctioning through mandatory drug testing had a substantial impact on their prevalence of drug use. Thirty of the them claimed to have stopped completely. Others had reduced consumption or changed consumption patterns. Fifty-seven percent of the inmates and 40 percent of the staff also believed that the drug testing was likely to cause harm by encouraging inmates to change from marijuana to heroin due to the lower detectability of heroin. However, very few had begun to use heroin as a result of the testing. Thirty-one percent of those in the sample who had been tested at random and said that they were still using drugs said that their drug use was not detected at their last test. Two-thirds of the inmates did not consider the testing to be unfair. Forty percent of the staff regarded testing or marijuana to be a disproportionate response. Findings suggested that mandatory drug testing will result in longer periods of custody, will increase the total prison population by up to 360 prison spaces a year, and will add about 7 million pounds to operating costs. Tables, footnotes, appended instruments and results, list of other Home Office publications, and 25 references (Author summary modified)