Substance Abuse in Prisons: Causes, Costs, and Solutions
This research report examines the problem of active substance abuse within prison systems, with a focus on how drugs enter facilities, how treatment is often withheld or inadequate, and what consequences follow for incarcerated and released individuals. Drawing on peer-reviewed academic literature, the report discusses subgroup disparities in post-release mortality among Australian inmates, the costs and benefits of community-based drug diversion programs in the United States, and the relationship between co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse as predictors of prison violence. The paper concludes with a call for pragmatic policy reforms and stronger consequences for those who facilitate drug smuggling into correctional facilities.
- Introduction: Overview of drug use and dealing in prisons
- Statement of Purpose: Why studying active prison drug use matters
- Research Design: Peer-reviewed EBSCO sources used exclusively
- Research Findings: Studies on treatment gaps, mortality, diversion, and violence
- Discussion: Policy implications and calls for systemic reform
- Conclusion: Limits of enforcement and need for practical solutions
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper maintains a clear, consistent structure — purpose, design, findings, discussion, conclusion — that mirrors a formal research report format and makes the argument easy to follow.
- It draws on diverse peer-reviewed sources spanning multiple countries (Finland, Australia, the United States), giving the findings comparative breadth without overstating the evidence.
- The discussion section moves beyond summarizing findings to offer a policy-oriented argument, distinguishing between prisoners who need treatment and those who enable drug trafficking — a useful analytical distinction.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates evidence synthesis across multiple studies: rather than reporting each source in isolation, it builds a cumulative argument — from inadequate treatment, to post-release mortality disparities, to diversion program outcomes, to violence prediction — showing how each finding reinforces the overall claim that prison drug policy is systemically insufficient.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing introduction before moving into a clearly labeled Statement of Purpose. The Research Design section justifies the use of peer-reviewed sources exclusively. Research Findings presents four studies in sequence, organized thematically. The Discussion section offers the author's interpretive and policy conclusions, and the Conclusion summarizes the core dilemma and calls for actionable reform. The structure is transparent and academically conventional for a short research report.
Introduction
If there are two things that plague prisons the most — other than violence — they would be drug dependency and mental illness. Quite often, both conditions appear together in the same prisoners. However, the problem of active drug use and dealing within prison walls deserves its own focused attention, and that is the subject of this brief research report. The report includes a statement of purpose, a description of the research design, the overall research findings, a discussion section, and a conclusion with a proposed resolution. References to peer-reviewed scholarly literature will support each section. While prisons and their personnel do their best to curb or stop substance abuse, the influx of drugs is never-ending and is brought in through many different methods.
Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this study is straightforward. The body of literature about drug dependency and mental illness as they relate to prisons is substantial. However, literature specifically focused on active drug use inside prisons is considerably harder to find, largely because such behavior occurs covertly and is difficult to track. Whether someone is mentally ill or using drugs can be determined through mental evaluations and drug tests, respectively. Drug use in prison, however, is facilitated through smuggling, deceit, and — in some cases — the complicity of prison personnel who either look the other way or are actively involved in the movement of illegal substances (including prescription drugs used outside their authorized context, such as non-prescription OxyContin abuse).
The core problem is that drugs are making their way into prisons, allowing addicts to continue — or even deepen — their addictions while incarcerated. This makes those individuals harder to manage, more volatile, more prone to violence, and more likely to harm themselves through overdosing or dangerous behavior. The depth and breadth of this problem, as well as what is currently being done to address it, are the central concerns of this report.
Research Design
The research design of this report is deliberately focused. The author used the EBSCO academic search engine and drew exclusively from peer-reviewed and other academic journals. Periodicals, general websites, and other non-academic sources are inconsistent in quality and reliability. Peer-reviewed journals are far more authoritative because authors must subject their work to a rigorous screening and review process before publication, ensuring the reliability, validity, legitimacy, and applicability of the findings presented.
Research Findings
One major issue surrounding substance abuse in prisons is that it not only occurs within prison walls but is frequently left untreated — or treated far less vigorously than the situation demands — even when the need is evident and the prisoner has requested help. This is true even in progressive European countries such as Finland (Obstbaum and Tyni). Furthermore, outcomes for current or former drug addicts vary widely depending on the subgroup under examination.
This disparity was evident in research conducted on Australian prisons. Of 52,015 individuals released a total of 82,315 times from prison, approximately 2,100 deaths were recorded following release. People of indigenous ancestry were disproportionately likely to die, and they were especially at risk during the first four weeks after release. Presumably, many released prisoners immediately returned to drug use and engaged in excessive binges that proved fatal (Forsyth et al.).
One approach used in the United States to break the cycle of addiction and incarceration involves diverting prisoners away from state prison altogether. A 2015 study examined the lifetime benefits and costs of diverting drug-involved offenders from state prisons to community-based drug treatment programs. The study noted that prisons contain a remarkably high proportion of individuals with some form of drug problem — roughly half, depending on the facility. The research found that some individuals still recidivated even after receiving a community-based intervention. Nevertheless, there was a net societal benefit to expanding rehabilitation options for prisoners who clearly need help overcoming addiction. Such interventions require that the prisoner be willing to seek help, but this willingness is actually present in a significant portion of addicted individuals (Zarkin et al.).
The case for diverting drug-involved prisoners from state facilities is reinforced by additional research on the relationship between substance abuse and prison violence. In many cases, drug use and mental illness are comorbid. Mental illness may be caused by drug use or significantly worsened by it. Either way, the co-occurrence of these two conditions substantially increases the likelihood of assaults and other violent incidents. Moreover, the violence is cyclical — roughly half the time, a person who is attacked or harmed in an assault has previously been a perpetrator of violence themselves. While some of this reflects gang dynamics and retaliation, the roles played by drugs and mental illness in perpetuating prison violence cannot be discounted (Wood and Buttaro).
Conclusion
As this report has demonstrated, prisons are environments where drug use is persistent and exceptionally difficult to eliminate. Short of extremely punitive measures — cutting off all shipments and visitor access, and conducting exhaustive daily searches of every guard — completely stopping drug use is not a realistic goal. Attempting such measures would also enrage both prisoners and staff, turning a difficult situation into an unmanageable one. Even so, practical, evidence-based solutions must be identified, tested, and implemented as soon as reasonably possible. The current approach is not working, and the human cost of inaction continues to grow.
References
Forsyth, Simon J., et al. "Striking Subgroup Differences in Substance-Related Mortality After Release from Prison." Addiction 109.10 (2014): 1676–1683. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Obstbaum, Yaira, and Sasu Tyni. "Who Receives Substance Abuse Treatment in the 'Real World' of the Prison? A Register-Based Study of Finnish Inmates." Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology & Crime Prevention 16.1 (2015): 76–96. Legal Collection. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Wood, Steven R., and Anthony Buttaro, Jr. "Co-Occurring Severe Mental Illnesses and Substance Abuse Disorders as Predictors of State Prison Inmate Assaults." Crime & Delinquency 59.4 (2013): 510–535. ERIC. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Zarkin, Gary A., et al. "Lifetime Benefits and Costs of Diverting Substance-Abusing Offenders from State Prison." Crime & Delinquency 61.6 (2015): 829–850. Education Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
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