Centre for Social Research in Health
The annual cost of imprisonment in Australia is $100,000 per inmate. Challenges associated with release from prison and subsequent reincarceration are a major ongoing problem as the national prison population grows to unprecedented levels. People with a history of injecting drug use (PWID) are a key population to examine, given they constitute up to 58% of the prison population and report extremely high reincarceration rates. Interventions that can reduce reincarceration among PWID are therefore urgently needed.
The transition from prison to the community offers a key intervention point, yet the lack of research examining inmates’ experiences negotiating the complex post-release world in which health, social and criminogenic factors intersect, and which unpacks the trajectory of release-from-prison to return-to-prison, impedes the development of effective policies and interventions. This project uses a sophisticated qualitative research method to examine the lived experience of people released from prison who inject drugs to capture the inter-relationships between their multi-faceted needs. The results are directly applicable to understanding how in-prison and post-release health and other support programs can support people released from prison to achieve better outcomes on health, wellbeing, social and criminogenic measures, particularly recidivism. In-depth interviews examined the perceived health and social needs, informal strategies adopted and health/social services utilised by participants, and novel research dissemination tools were used to translate these findings.
Aims of the project:
- Identify the health-related needs of people released from prison who inject drugs.
- Identify the strategies, resources and services used by these people since release to manage their health needs.
- Examine how key health and social variables (injecting drug use and housing status in particular) affect the needs expressed by, and resources available to, people released from prison.
- Identify crucial intervention opportunities to promote the health and wellbeing of people released from prison in the post-release period and affect change in recidivism.
Research Centre
Research Area
Hepatitis and Harm Reduction
- Research publications
- Research dissemination
- Funding agency
- Collaborators
- Lafferty, L., Schroeder, S., Marshall, A. D., Drysdale, K., Higgs, P., Stoové, M., Baldry, E., Dietze, P., & Treloar, C. (2023). Trust and service engagement among people who inject drugs after release from prison. International journal of drug policy, 111, 103925. 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103925
- Schroeder S, Drysdale K, Lafferty L, Marshall A, Baldry E, Higgs P, Dietze P, Stoove M and Treloar C. (2022). “‘It’s a revolving door’: Ego-depletion among prisoners with injecting drug use histories as a barrier to post-release success", International Journal of Drug Policy. Volume 101, March 2022, 103571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103571
- Treloar C, Schroeder S, Lafferty L, Marshall A, Drysdale K, Higgs P, Baldry E, Stoove M, Dietze P. (2021). “Structural competency in the post-prison period for people who inject drugs: a qualitative case study”, International Journal of Drug Policy. Volume 95, September 2021, 103261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103261
- Marshall, A., Schroeder, S., Lafferty, L., Drysdale, K., Baldry, E., Stoove, M., Dietze, P., Higgs, P., and Treloar, C. (2023). “Perceived Access to Opioid Agonist Treatment in Prison among People with a History of Injection Drug Use: A Qualitative Study”, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. (online 12 May) - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.josat.2023.209066.
In response to findings from the project, researchers and community members collaborated to produce a three part series related to the overarching themes identified in the research: ego-depletion, structural competency, and trust. The results were evocative and compelling narratives that illustrate the difficulties faced, and strategies used to aid successful reintegration back into community, following the post-release period. The three pieces below align with each of these themes.
VIDEO: Support services failing to keep offenders out of prison, ABC News (online), 25 July 2023
COMMENTARY: ‘They weren’t there when I needed them’: we asked former prisoners what happens when support services fail, The Conversation (online), 25 July 2023
MEDIA: Hate This, Insider News (print) and User News (online), 5 July 2023
MEDIA: Shining a light on the hope-filled stressful journeys of people leaving jail, Insider News (print) and User News (online), 8 May 2023
MEDIA: Inherent Problems With Post-Incarceration Services for Drug Users, Filter, February 2023
MEDIA: Prison & Performance: An innovative new project is using the arts to bring research alive, The Bulletin, November 2022
SEMINAR RECORDING: Using novel research translation to change public attitudes:A difficult task for formerly incarcerated people with histories of injecting drug use, presented 20 July 2022
COMMENTARY: Using art to prevent recidivism and change attitudes towards people who inject drugs and have been in prison, Australian Human Rights Institute, November 2021
NHMRC
Burnet Institute - Mark Stoove, Paul Dietze, Peter Higgs, Sophia Schroeder
UNSW - Eileen Baldry
