home
 

Media/News > Fact Research Guide > Prisons

Drugs offenders, drugs related offending and the prison population

The ballooning size of the prison population has been increasingly prominent in the media and in political debate. The role of drug enforcement is, however, rarely acknowledged. A significant proportion of inmates are seeing out sentences for drug offences (under the Misuse of Drugs Act and related drug legislation) and an even greater proportion for a range of secondary drug related offences (more accurately prohibition related offences). Combined it is reasonable to suggest that drug law enforcement is directly responsible for over half of the prison population, although poor data and research means it is impossible to come to precise figure.

Crime, illegal drug markets and problematic use of illegal drugs are intertwined through a series of complex connections, but primarily because:

  • Every illegal drug user (around one third of the adult population, or half of all young people) is considered a serious (imprisonable) criminal
  • High drug prices (inflated by prohibition) drive a comparatively small population of low-income dependent heroin and crack users to commit disproportionately large volumes of acquisitive property crime to fund their habits. See Transform's briefing on Drugs and Crime for further discussion.

The influence of drug policy and prohibition on the prisons crisis is clear, and it is worth noting that the UK, (in contrast to the line promoted by many commentators and opposition politicians) has amongst the harshest and most punitive drug enforcement in Europe, amongst the highest per capita prison population in Europe [1] and consistently amongst the highest level of drug use and drug deaths in Europe [2].

Prison Population

Prison population data, unlike many other statistics in the drugs debate, is both reliable and up to date.

There are currently around 80,000 people in prison, the precise figure fluctuating on a daily basis. The total population is updated and published on a weekly basis by the home office. [3]

Rising prison population

Numbers in prison for drug offences have risen sharply over the last decade, faster than any other identified group of offenders. It is important to note that the biggest increase is for drug offences – of 5825 inmates (up around 250% for men and 300% for women). [4]

The Home Office, taking into account current trends, has estimated that the prison population will rise to 106550 by 2013. [5]

Break down of prison population

Ethnicity

Break down of of prison population by ethnicity (2007) [6]
Gender Race Percent
Male (75,451) White 73%
Mixed 3%
Asian or Asian British 7%
Black or Black British 15%
Chinese or other ethnic group 1%
Not stated, unrecorded, or 1991 Census ethnic codes 1%
Women (4,283) White 70%
Mixed 4%
Asian or Asian British 3%
Black or Black British 19%
Chinese or other ethnic group 3%
Not stated, unrecorded, or 1991 Census ethnic codes ~1%

There are a higher proportion of black inmates on drug offence charges (28%) compared to white (13%). This is despite the black community having a per-capita level of drug use lower than whites [7]. (There is some discussion of the overrepresentation of black drug offenders in the prisons here: ‘Race And The `Drug Problem' More Than Just An Enforcement Issue' Philip Guy).

“There are 2.3 million Black, Asian and Minority Women (BAME) in the UK, making up just under 4% of the total population of the UK. In 2002 BAME women made up less than 8% of the total female population of the UK but accounted for close to 31% of female prisoners. Black women are over-represented in prison. Black female prisoners make 26.4% of female prisoners while black males account for 24% of male prisoners. Black British women in prison make 11.6% compared to only 2% of all British women. British Asian women prisoners make 4% of the female prison population. There is a high number of foreign national prisoners and at present 1 in 5 women in prison are foreign nationals. Foreign national prisoners come from 168 countries (Jamaica, The Irish Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey and India). A quarter is Jamaicans by far the largest group.”

-- Black Women's Experiences of the Criminal Justice system [8]

Sex

Break down of of prison population by gender (2006) [9]
Male Female
95% 5.5%

DrugScope provide valuable information on women in prison. Below are some key facts from their website about the relationship between women, drugs and prison [10].

  • ‘40% of sentenced women in prison are for drug offences in 2002, compared to 16% of men.'
  • ‘Nearly two-thirds of women in prison have a drug problem according a survey carried out in 2001. Anecdotally, in some prisons, this is considered to be about 70-80%'
  • ‘Nearly two-thirds of those who commit suicide in prison have a history of drug misuse and nearly a third a history of alcohol misuse.'

Number of Drug Offenders in prison

The most recent data is that there are 10613 people in prison for specific drug offences. [11]

Number of Drug-Related Offenders

Trying to determine Drug-related crime statistics are much more problematic. This is because defining what crimes are ‘drug related' is difficult, and also the criminal justice system does not systematically collect data on this. Courts are concerned with the actual crime committed i.e. theft, fraud, violence, and not the motivation of the crime (e.g. need to pay for drugs, intoxication). However, some research has been done on drug-related crime, with estimates usually based on drug testing of arrestees, and/or information volunteered in interview by arrestees.

The NEW-ADAM programme (New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring) is the most thorough undertaken by the Home Office and provides the best large-scale data on this question. Interpretation of this data differs however and there are clearly some methodological weaknesses in the survey.

The first NEW-ADAM analysis (1999) from the Home Office [12] first report found that:

“Almost half of arrestees (46%) who reported using drugs in the last 12 months believed that their drug use and crime were connected. The most frequent connection cited was the need for money to buy drugs. There was also some support for the view that arrestees whose drug use and crime were connected would report higher levels of criminal involvement. Arrestees who said that their drug use and offending were connected reported illegal incomes (a measure of criminal involvement) on average two to three times higher than those who said that their drug use and crime were not connected.

The research found a statistically significant correlation between number of positive urine tests and amount of reported illegal income (the ave rage illegal income of arrestees with no positive tests was £3,000, compared with over £12,000 among arrestees with three positive tests). Arrestees who tested positive for opiates, methadone, or cocaine reported levels of illegal income two to three times higher than those who tested negative for these drugs.”

Based at least in part on the NEW-ADAM research, the (2003) report from the Number 10 Strategy Unit [13] claimed that over half of all property crimes were drug motivated:

  • “Heroin and/or crack users cause harm to the health and social functioning of users and society as a whole, but users also commit substantial amounts of crime to fund their drug use (costing £16bn a year)”. (p.2)
  • “Drug use is responsible for the great majority of some types of crime, such as shoplifting and burglary ” (inc 85% of shoplifting, 70-80% of burglaries, 54% of robberies) (p.25)

The results of the NEW-ADAM Programme 1999-2002 [14] suggested a plateau of around 65% of arrestees testing positive for drugs. Of which 47% were cannabis users, 28% opiate, 5% methadone, 23% cocaine, 6% amphetamine, 18% benzodiazepines.

It is difficult to come to firm conclusions from any of this data. 'Drug related crime' is a nebulous concept at the best of times, and the data that has been collected is not methodologically strong and open to interpretation. We can really only make fairly broad statements that need to be caveated as inference/generalisations from a relatively poor research base. (The parliamentary search engine and www.theyworkforyou.com can assist you when searching for comments on drugs/prisons and related subjects made in various parliamentary fora).

Parliamentary Questions

Drug-related Robbery

Mr. Jeremy Browne : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of robbery reported to the police in 2006 were classified as drug-related crime. [PQ No. 117790]

Mr. Coaker : Data on offences of robbery recorded by the police are available from the recorded crime statistics. However, it is not possible to determine those that are drug-related as no information is collected on the circumstances surrounding the offences.

Drug Users (Illegal Income)

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the average annual illegal income of arrested (a) heroin and (b) crack users. [PQ No. 47717]

Mr. Charles Clarke: We do not have the information requested.

Drug Addiction (Crime)

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of crime undertaken as a direct consequence of drug addiction; and if he will make a statement. [16701]

Paul Goggins: Crime statistics used for monitoring overall crime trends, such as recorded crime and the British Crime Survey, do not contain information about the drug habits of individual offenders or their motivation for offending. It is therefore not possible to provide firm estimates of the total amount of crime undertaken as a direct consequence of addiction.

Prison information and analysis

Government

  • http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prisons1.html - Home Office Prison Statistics including research on drugs strategy in prisons; study of reconvictions to support drugs treatment programmes in prisons; research on pre-release programmes in prisons and resettlement issues; discipline in prison. (Sporadically updated).

Non Government

International

References

  1. ^ International Centre for Prison Studies - Prison Brief - Highest to Lowest Rates
  2. ^ European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2008) - Annual Report 2008
  3. ^ HM Prison Service - Population figures
  4. ^ Home Office RDS (2003) - The prison population in 2002: a statistical review
  5. ^ Home Office Statistical Bulletin (2006) - Prison population projections 2006-2013, England and Wales
  6. ^ Ministry of Justice (2008) - Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2007
  7. ^ Home Office RDS (2003) - The prison population in 2001: a statistical review
  8. ^ Black Women's Experiences of the Criminal Justice system
  9. ^ International Centre for Prison Studies - Prison Brief for United Kingdom: England & Wales
  10. ^ Drugscope - Using Women Factsheet
  11. ^ Ministry of Justice (2008) - Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2007
  12. ^ Home Office Research Study 183 (1998) - Drugs and crime: the results of research on drug testing and interviewing arrestees
  13. ^ Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (2003) – Strategy Unit Drugs Report – Phase I
  14. ^ Home Office RDS - Trends in drug use and offending: the results of the NEW-ADAM Programme 1999–2002
 Transform Drug Policy Foundation, 9-10 King Street., Bristol, BS1 4EQ, Tel: +44 (0) 117 325 0295 top^ 
Transform Drug Policy Foundation is a registered charity. (Charity no. 1100518 and Limited Company no. 4862177.)
-
-