The Drug Routine: The Everyday Consequences of Drugs in Prison

• In Event: Coping with Imprisonment: Experiences of Male and Female Inmates

Abstract

The longstanding academic interest in drugs in prison tends to focus on hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and treat the ‘drug issue’ a ‘drug problem.’ That is, by virtue of focusing on harsh opiates, the literature accentuates the negative consequences they create in prison pertaining to violence, illness, gangs, and extortion.
This presentation draws upon qualitative research (300 interviews and ethnographic observations) to foreground a quite different dynamic. In particular, we accentuate the diverse and multi-dimensional impacts that drugs (and efforts to regulate drugs) have on the daily operation of prisons, something that leaves almost no aspect of prison life untouched. We accentuate how drugs and drug interdiction play out in such things as the population profile, conflicts with guards, inmate hierarchies, the mood on a unit, prison architecture, staffing/programming, communications, and human contact.

Authors

• Kevin D. Haggerty, University of Alberta

• Sandra M Bucerius, University of Alberta