Prisoner Society in an Era of Psychoactive Substances, Organized Crime, New Drug Markets and Austerity

Abstract

Framed by the limited and now dated ethnographic research on the prison drug economy, this article offers new theoretical and empirical insights into how drugs challenge the social order in prisons in England and Wales. It draws on significant original and rigorous ethnographic research to argue that the ‘era of hard drugs’ has been superseded by an ‘era of new psychoactive drugs’, redefining social relations, transforming the prison illicit economy, producing new forms of prison victimization and generating far greater economic power and status for suppliers. These changes represent the complex interplay and compounding effects of broader shifts in political economy, technological advances, organized crime, prison governance and the declining legitimacy and moral performance of English and Welsh prisons.

Deterioration, drift, distraction, and denial: How the politics of austerity challenges the resilience of prison health governance and delivery in England

“…Drawing on and advancing previous research [ [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] ], this study demonstrates the sophistication of the microeconomic structure of organised crime, showing how gangs thrive in England’s prisons and manifesting how criminal groups sustain a monopolistic market through coercion and violence. Beyond this informal economy, the lack of detection and enforcement owing to having a reduced number of prison custodians signifies a broader crisis of legitimacy in prison governance [ 66 ].…”

“…Although Maitra [ 35 ] suggested these groups are less entrenched in English prisons, recent research indicates otherwise. Sophisticated financial trading and a wider availability of these psychoactive substances [ 36 ] have enabled organised crime and prison gangs and have been linked to coercion, violence, debt, and overdoses [ 37 ].…”

Challenges associated with e-cigarette use by people in custody in Scottish prisons: a qualitative interview study with prison staff

“…24 There is a growing body of evidence on the challenges and harms posed by NPS use in prisons, which had been identified as a challenge within the prisons several years prior to the introduction of smoke-free prison policy in Scotland. [25][26][27] Findings from TIPs interviews exploring postimplementation perspectives on Scotland's smoke-free prison policy among a separate sample of staff and PiC also suggest that the smoke-free prison policy may have contributed to changes in the use of NPS, specifically through misuse of e-cigarettes. 9 Understandings of the general risks posed by e-cigarettes for illicit drug taking, including NPS, are developing: a 2018 systematic review 28 suggested several potential areas of risk.…”

‘Gaming the System?’ The Merits, Myths and Realities in Understanding Prison Architect: Security, Rehabilitation and Violence as Represented in the World's Bestselling Carceral Video Game

“…Only recently have criminologists attempted to turn their attention to how the conditions inside, often in and of themselves resulted in multifaceted forms of escapism, pleasure and leisure in prison space (Gooch & Sheldon, 2019). Of course, in the void created by falling staff numbers, high resources and austeritydriven budget cuts, violent crime, disorder and drug dealing have come to somewhat fill the void (Gooch & Treadwell, 2020;Treadwell, Gooch, & Barkam-Parry, 2019).…”

“…In addition, when confined to their cells, too many prisoners were (and are) detained in squalid and unsanitary conditions, exposed to the elements, vermin and pests and with little or no clothing or bedding (National Audit Office, 2020). It is not all pizza and PlayStation, although, there are select examples of that in some of the organised crime cultures that proliferate tied to a drug economy in Britain's prisons (Gooch & Treadwell, 2020;Treadwell et al, 2019).…”