News (Media Awareness Project) - US: It's Easy To Get Drugs In Prison, Ex-Cons Say |
| Title: | US: It's Easy To Get Drugs In Prison, Ex-Cons Say |
| Published On: | 2000-08-25 |
| Source: | Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-03 11:15:22 |
IT'S EASY TO GET DRUGS IN PRISON, EX-CONS SAY
LOS ANGELES -- A survey has found that inmates imprisoned in California and across the nation have easy access to drugs behind bars and can readily make connections to acquire and sell drugs once they are released.
The survey by the Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation group, found that 88 percent of former inmates indicated it was easy to obtain drugs in prison. Their stint in prison also made 46 percent of the respondents more likely to use drugs than if they had not been incarcerated, according to the study. The findings were from a poll of nearly 600 former inmates enrolled in drug-treatment programs at 10 Phoenix House locations in New York, Florida, Texas and Santa Ana.
Many of the respondents were paroled to Phoenix House straight from prison.
Highlights of the Phoenix House survey, which was conducted in April by the polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, include:
83 percent of the respondents (92 percent in California) reported being arrested on a drug-related charge. 46 percent (55 percent in California) said being imprisoned made them more likely to use drugs. 78 percent said putting drug users in jail had little effect on controlling the drug problem.
Some experts disputed the survey's account of the availability of drugs in prison.
"The availability of drugs will vary from prison to prison, prisoner to prisoner and drug to drug," said Mark AR. Kleiman, director of UCLA's Drug Policy Analysis Program. "Anyone who was a serious heroin or cocaine user outside would find it very hard to maintain that inside. They mostly come out of prison detoxed. But as soon as they hit the street, they come out looking for drugs."
The drug issue was the subject of legislative hearings last year in California, and state Department of Corrections officials acknowledged that drugs are easily available to inmates.
The Corrections Department had not seen the Phoenix House survey and declined to comment on it, spokeswoman Margot Bach told the Los Angeles Times yesterday.
The department has programs to flush the system of drugs, Bach said.
The state has recently started a program to randomly test a sampling of inmates for drugs at several state facilities.
The experiment also includes drug-sniffing dogs and new techniques to find minute particles of controlled substances on surfaces, Bach said.
LOS ANGELES -- A survey has found that inmates imprisoned in California and across the nation have easy access to drugs behind bars and can readily make connections to acquire and sell drugs once they are released.
The survey by the Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation group, found that 88 percent of former inmates indicated it was easy to obtain drugs in prison. Their stint in prison also made 46 percent of the respondents more likely to use drugs than if they had not been incarcerated, according to the study. The findings were from a poll of nearly 600 former inmates enrolled in drug-treatment programs at 10 Phoenix House locations in New York, Florida, Texas and Santa Ana.
Many of the respondents were paroled to Phoenix House straight from prison.
Highlights of the Phoenix House survey, which was conducted in April by the polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, include:
83 percent of the respondents (92 percent in California) reported being arrested on a drug-related charge. 46 percent (55 percent in California) said being imprisoned made them more likely to use drugs. 78 percent said putting drug users in jail had little effect on controlling the drug problem.
Some experts disputed the survey's account of the availability of drugs in prison.
"The availability of drugs will vary from prison to prison, prisoner to prisoner and drug to drug," said Mark AR. Kleiman, director of UCLA's Drug Policy Analysis Program. "Anyone who was a serious heroin or cocaine user outside would find it very hard to maintain that inside. They mostly come out of prison detoxed. But as soon as they hit the street, they come out looking for drugs."
The drug issue was the subject of legislative hearings last year in California, and state Department of Corrections officials acknowledged that drugs are easily available to inmates.
The Corrections Department had not seen the Phoenix House survey and declined to comment on it, spokeswoman Margot Bach told the Los Angeles Times yesterday.
The department has programs to flush the system of drugs, Bach said.
The state has recently started a program to randomly test a sampling of inmates for drugs at several state facilities.
The experiment also includes drug-sniffing dogs and new techniques to find minute particles of controlled substances on surfaces, Bach said.
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