The NPS crisis in british prisons

02 Pubblicazione su volume
Marrinan Shanna, Bersani Giuseppe, Corazza Ornella

The use of NPS in prisons has become ‘the biggest issue we currently face from a prisoner
health perspective’ in the United Kingdom (UK; CSJ, 2015). Professionals working with
prison populations have been increasingly challenged by the recent dramatic increase
in the number of self-harm episodes, assaults between prisoners, and attacks on staff
related to the use of these substances (Ralphs, Williams, Askew, & Norton, 2017 Blackman
& Bradley, 2017 ). In 2018, over 44,000 cases of self-harm in prisons were reported
in England and Wales, refl ecting a record high in the 12 months to December 2017, following
substantial year-on-year increases (Ministry of Justice, 2018. Of people detained
in police custody, 16% reported current suicidal thoughts; 86% of this group reported
a history of self-harm or suicide attempts (Forrester et al., 2016).The spread of NPS
use in prison has also been linked to a dramatic increase in attacks on staff, which has
reached almost eight and a half thousand annual episodes, up 23% from the previous
year. Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults have also continued to increase, reaching a record
high of 29,485 incidents in the 12 months to December 2017 (Ministry of Justice, 2018).
In the three years up to 2016, a total of 79 deaths and two homicides have been explicitly
linked to the use of NPS ( Newcomen, 2016a ).

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