Sander, Gen and Scandurra, Alessio and Kamenska, Anhelita and MacNamara, Catherine and Kalpaki, Christina and Bessa, Cristina Fernandez and Laso, Gemma Nicolás and Parisi, Grazia and Varley, Lorraine and Wolny, Marcin and Moudatsou, Maria and Pontes, Nuno Henrique and Mannix-McNamara, Patricia and Libianchi, Sandro and Antypas, Tzanetos (2016) Overview of harm reduction in prisons in seven European countries. Harm Reduction Journal, 13, (1), p. 28.
External website: http://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/arti...
While the last decade has seen a growth of support for harm reduction around the world, the availability and accessibility of quality harm reduction services in prison settings is uneven and continues to be inadequate compared to the progress achieved in the broader community. This article provides a brief overview of harm reduction in prisons in Catalonia (Spain), Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Portugal. While each country provides a wide range of harm reduction services in the broader community, the majority fail to provide these same services or the same quality of these services, in prison settings, in clear violation of international human rights law and minimum standards on the treatment of prisoners. Where harm reduction services have been available and easily accessible in prison settings for some time, better health outcomes have been observed, including significantly reduced rates of HIV and HCV incidence. While the provision of harm reduction in each of these countries' prisons varies considerably, certain key themes and lessons can be distilled, including around features of an enabling environment for harm reduction, resource allocation, collection of disaggregated data, and accessibility of services.
MM-MO Crime and law > Substance use laws > Drug laws
MM-MO Crime and law > Justice system > Correctional system and facility > Prison
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use > Harm reduction policy
T Demographic characteristics > Person who uses substances (user / experience)
T Demographic characteristics > Person in prison (prisoner)
VA Geographic area > Europe
VA Geographic area > Europe > Ireland
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