This article discusses availability of drug treatment in English and Welsh prisons, within the broader context of drugs-and-crime issues. The article draws on a large pre-release survey of prisoners. Nearly two-thirds of those reporting problems staying off drugs before they were imprisoned subsequently received some treatment in prison, while one in ten went on an intensive rehabilitation programme. However, longsentence prisoners were disproportionately likely to receive treatment. Outstanding challenges include a need to improve access to different types of treatment, especially for short-term prisoners, if treatment is to play as full a part as possible in addressing prisoners' drug problems and reducing reoffending.This article presents initial evidence as to the extent to which the drug strategy of prisons in England and Wales is meeting the treatment needs of drug-using prisoners. First, in this section, it briefly outlines the drug strategy in prisons, as relaunched in 1998, and the balance struck between supply reduction on the one hand and treatment on the other. While the new strategy is still being actively developed and delivered, and provision remains uneven, prisoners are now receiving a range of treatment services. As consumers of those services, some but not all prisoners express satisfaction. These and other issues are explored in the next five sections, by drawing on the 2001 Resettlement Survey, an 'exit' survey of prisoners interviewed close to their release. Finally, the implications section and the conclusions place these results within the broader context of drugs-andcrime issues (while an endnote provides a brief update).The Prison Service drug strategy in its current form was launched in 1998 (Prison Service 1998). The launch document incorporated the four main strands of the national drugs strategy (dissuading young people from drug use, combating drug-related offending, providing treatment, and curbing the supply of drugs). A new unit within the Prison Service,
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