Three enactments of drugs in Danish prison drug treatment: Illegal drugs, medicine and constrainers

Abstract

Drugs are an increasingly salient concern in many European prisons. Drug policies are made, drugs are controlled, used and prescribed and drug use is treated and sanctioned. In light of the growing significance of drugs in prison life, we analyse the different ways of drugs that are enacted in Danish drug treatment programmes, based on insights derived from Science and Technology Studies. We ground our analysis with data from two qualitative research projects conducted between 2007 and 2010 and between 2011 and 2014. In all, eight prisons were involved in the two studies. Our analysis reveals three distinctive drug enactments characterised by rather different practises, discourses and narratives: drugs as illegal substances, as medicine and as constrainers. Furthermore, we examine how policy makers, prison officers, health personnel, counsellors and prisoners contribute to the construction and organisation of these three enactments, along with the practical and discursive domains in which this work takes place. We conclude by assessing some of the implications of these different enactments of drugs for prisoners’ subjectivities.

• Criminal justice
• drugs
• qualitative research
• substance use
• treatment

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to report.

Notes

¹ In general, prison officers, health personnel and drug counsellors are regulated by different laws and regulations in Denmark. Officers are bound by regulations set out by the Ministry of Justice and by the Prison Service, health personnel are bound by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Health and Medicine and counsellors are bound by the Ministry of Children, Gender equality, Integration and Social Affairs and the National Board of Social Services.

² Before the policy changes, urine tests were used only on suspicion of drug use, and these tests did not include testing for cannabis use, only use of “hard” drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and amphetamines (for further details, see Kolind et al., 2012).

³ In order to add to the complexity, it should be noted that in Danish political debates, it has been explicitly stated that a reason for strengthening the prisons’ drug control and sanctioning was that it was expected that this would led to more inmates seeking drug treatment (Kolind et al., 2012).