Women, Drugs and Custody

Description

The approach of HM Prison Service for England and Wales and the Scottish Prison Service to drug users in prison, focusing on the experiences of women drug users in particular – and looking at items such as: policies and guidelines, their implementation and effect; the experiences of women drug users in prison in their own words; the views of prison staff who need to ‘care’ for drug users whilst concentrating on security and control; tensions inherent in an increasing prison population with a significant ‘drug user’ element; the priorities and emphasis of current practice; the ‘medicalising’, ‘pathologising’ and ‘criminalizing’ of women drug users, who are seen as ‘sick’, ‘deviant’, ‘depraved’ and ‘degraded’; the impact of prison regimes on drug users – and vice-versa; the discretionary implementation of policies the stereotyping of drug users; how the social control of women extends into the penal arena. A welcome addition to the expanding literature on drugs and offenders, the book looks at the three separate strands indicated by its title – ‘Women’, ‘Drugs’ and ‘Custody’ – often with their conflicting aims and agendas. It joins a number of other innovative Waterside Press titles touching upon like issues – to show how drugs present doubly complex problems in an environment where security and control take priority.

Review

‘This book gave me – an average person – an insight into the drugs scene that left a lasting impression of people who have priorities and problems I know little about… Especially illuminating are the words of the women themselves’: Wendy Hillary, The Magistrate