Reducing substance use-related harm among people in prison and on their release: A qualitative study

The Purpose of the Funding:

This research aims to look at how the substance-using behaviours of people who use substances changes when they enter the prison, during their sentences and following their release. The changes in behaviours may include using different substances in prison, using different amounts or using substances in different ways.

The key objective is to gain information that can save lives and reduce harms due to substance use. This is an important topic to explore for a number of reasons. In Wales, drug-related deaths are the highest that they have ever been. We also know that the death rate in prisons due to substance use is almost double that of the general population. People that leave prison are also at a very high risk of dying due to substance use for up to a year after they are released, this risk is up to 16 times higher than the general population.

Research to help stop or lower the number of deaths and reduce substance related harm among those people who are in or have recently been in prison is an important public health area.

By interviewing people with histories of substance use while in prison, we hope to understand the reasons why people are dying or being harmed from substance-related issues in prison and on release and find ways of stopping this from happening. The interviews will tell us a number of things including: the socio-demographic characteristics of people who use substances in prison, what substances they choose to use and why, and what harm reduction practices, if any, they use. The interviews will explore changes over time and consider the substance-use and harm-reduction behaviours before, during and after a recent period of imprisonment. While the interviews will focus primarily on personal experiences, we will also ask interviewees to comment more broadly on the social context of substance use and describe events they have witnessed. This will help us to capture information about events where people have sadly died in prison or on release.

We have canvassed the views of someone with lived experience of substance use in prison as well as someone working to help support people with substance use problems in the prison environment. We have costed for their involvement in the project and will draw on their expertise to ensure that we ask the right questions of the right people in the right way and that we interpret the answers correctly and disseminate findings appropriately.

Key findings will be communicated back to our target population, the people who use drugs in prison, in an easy-to-understand format (e.g. through infographics and podcasts). We will also share our findings with the academic community through reports, journal articles and conference papers.