The discourses of risk of drug users in prison (original) (raw)

Prison, drugs and hidden populations. Drug use and high-risk behaviours that are damaging to health among the prison population [Prisión, drogas y poblaciones ocultas. Consumo de drogas y conductas de riesgo para la salud en población penitenciaria]

Invesbreu. Butlletí de difusió de recerques., 2014

This research aims to analyze the risk practices associated with drug consume in a specific Catalan prison called CP Brians 1. The main results show the existence of significantly higher levels of health problems in this prison than those found in the general population and in most of prison studies. Regarding health problems (physical and mental) and social or criminal behavior, the research describes two types of addicts, the functional (type A) and the chronic (type B). Both typologies show that attitudes in front of the risk can be 'prudent', 'adventurous' or 'reckless'. Other relevant results include the role of drug treatment variables as risk factors and social relationships as protective variables as well as gender differences in motivation for treatment. Finally, a series of actions are proposed to address these issues in the prison, through the motivational intervention model of harm reduction, as part of the various activities of health promotion, and especially those that highlight peer education - Health Agent Program-, and the Exchange of Syringes Program.

Substance use characteristics, health risk practices and associated factors among people imprisoned in Catalonia: a cross-sectional study

Revista Española Sanidad Penitenciaria, 2019

Introduction: There are gaps in the available kowledge about substance use and risky practices among prison inmates wich we proposed to clarify in order to improve interventions. Material and method: We conducted a specifically adapted survey with 178 potential users imprisoned in the Brians 1 Prison of Barcelona. We applied a snowball sampling method, with peers as privileged access interviewers, which is particularly recommended to bring out hidden information. Results: 74.7% of participants admitted to excessive use of addictive substances throughout their life. In the last 6 months in prison, 75.8% accepted that they had used drugs, while 18.5% injected them. 36.4% of the latter group participated in the needle exchange program (NEP) of the facility and 54.5% acknowledged that they shared the needles. Spanish people (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=4,79), recidivists (AOR = 2.67), penalised individuals (AOR = 2.70) and those involved in serious transgressions of prison regulations (AOR = 3.01) showed greater probability of substance use in prison. A longer sentence (AOR = 1.13), having undergone treatment for drug problems (AOR = 3.84) and being a carrier of blood-borne infections (AOR = 3.95) were linked to intravenous drug use. Injectors in the NEP were predominantly women (66.7%) and were more interested in caring for their health (90.9%). Discussion: The study reveals use of addictive substances and health risk practices among inmates in Catalonian prisons, despite their exposure to prevention policies mainly focused on abstinence; relates health risk behaviours to marginalization processes within the institution, and then consider the need to extend the scope of harm reduction interventions and to reinforce its appeal by incorporating the users' perspectives on the issue.

Illicit drugs & indiscriminate proliferation: The consequential and discourse analysis of substance abuse

Drugs and illicit substances have resulted in obliterating effects over the social structure throughout the globe. This study is an attempt to illuminate the socioeconomic and psychological impacts of substance abuse on the abusers. The study has been approached through literary, secondary and theoretical information that are further analyzed and applied in the area under study. In addition, the problem of substance abuse in this study is accessed through discourse analysis (elaborations of social learning theories), content analysis (in-depth study of the illicit substances i.e. alcohol, heroine, barbiturates) and framed under the theories of social process, learning and labeling. The study reflects and declares substance abuse, its production and selling as criminal conducts that are worth retribution and punishment.

The Effect of the Prison Environment upon Inmate Drug Taking Behaviour

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 1998

The aim of the present study was to examine, from an inmate perspective, their use of drugs and the perceived effect of the prison environment upon their drug using behaviour. Design of the study was an analytic survey, presented to the respondents as an anonymous, selfadministered questionnaire. The results suggest that the prison environment is not a supportive environment for those individuals that wish to abstain from drug use and indeed for most respondents, actually encouraged drug use.

Drug addiction and social discourses

Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental, 2012

This article analyzes the various discursive positions found in the phenomenon of addiction. The relations these discursive positions establish with the discourses of the master, the hysteric, the university and the capitalist are discussed. By analyzing material from clinical listening at a public outpatient drug and alcohol rehab center, it was seen that addiction can be described in different discourses. This article shows that the shift of focus from the symptom to the discursive position of the subject is an indicator for the clinical treatment of addiction.

Madde Bağimliliğiyla Mücadelede İnanç Odakli Yaklaşim: Kardelen Rehabi̇li̇tasyon Merkezi̇ Örneği̇

Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

This study questions the sincerity of Turkish media concerning its support for the struggle against substance use and addiction within the framework of the concept "baron" and aims to reveal with which lingual and discourse-related strategies the concept of "baron" is circulated. In this scope, news about people who smuggle a massive amount of drugs, published between January-November 2006 on the websites of the three top-seller newspapers, Hürriyet, Sözcü, and Sabah, are analyzed within the framework of the critical discourse analysis developed by Teun A. Van Dijk. The results of the analysis reveal that the news about people who smuggle drugs and who are named as "barons" by the Turkish media are transferred to the reader with an encouraging and exaggerated use of language, that drug trafficking is represented as a quite lucrative and adventurous profession which provides opportunities to quickly promote or possess fame and fortune, that instead of focusing on personal, social, and economic problems caused by drug trafficking, the problem is decontextualized by putting the emphasis on individual success stories of barons, the magnitude of smuggling, how cunning the smugglers are, how they could escape from prison or how they lived in their ordinary lives. While the media uses the term "poison merchant" even for kids who are pushed to criminal activities concerning narcotics/stimulants, the preference of the concept "baron" when it's about people who engage in massive amounts of drug trafficking reveals a necessity to question the media's sincerity concerning the struggle against substance use and addiction.

Psychosocial intervention with drug addicts in a prison. description and results of a programme

Penitentiary treatment must be wide-ranging and comprehensive, covering normative aspects, advice, cultural education, work, therapy, etc., with immediate objectives; ultimate objectives should be for inmates to adjust to prison life and to increase their ability to live without committing crimes. Drug-addiction programmes add to prison treatment the objective of equipping inmates to live without drugs. Many factors lead to the consumption of drugs in prison: the situation of a closed, controlled and prohibitive institution mean that options of escape The original Spanish version of this paper has been previously