20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region
Background: Prisons in Europe remain high-risk environments and conducive for infectious disease transmission, often related to injection drug use. Many infected people living in prison unaware of their infection status (HIV, hepatitis C). Despite all Council of Europe (CoE) member states providing...
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Public Health in Practice |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535224000818 |
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| author | Marie Claire Van Hout Ulla-Britt Klankwarth Simon Fleißner Heino Stöver |
| author_facet | Marie Claire Van Hout Ulla-Britt Klankwarth Simon Fleißner Heino Stöver |
| author_sort | Marie Claire Van Hout |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Prisons in Europe remain high-risk environments and conducive for infectious disease transmission, often related to injection drug use. Many infected people living in prison unaware of their infection status (HIV, hepatitis C). Despite all Council of Europe (CoE) member states providing community needle and syringe programmes (NSP), prison NSP are limited to seven countries. The study aim was to scrutinise the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT) reporting of periodic and ad hoc country mission visits to prisons, with an explicit focus on the extent to which member states are/were fulfilling obligations to protect prisoners from HIV/hepatitis C; and implementing prison NSP under the non-discriminatory equivalence of care principle. Study design: Socio-legal review. Methods: A systematic search of the CPT database was conducted in 2024 with no date restriction. All CPT reports were screened in chronological order with the terms; “needle”, “syringe”, “harm reduction” and “NSP”. Relevant narrative content on prison NSP operations, including repeat CPT reminders and any official/publicly expressed reasons for not implementing is presented. Results: CPT reporting reveals limited prison NSP provision in selected prisons visited on mission, with little change in status over time, despite documented evidence of prior observations around absent/insufficient harm reduction measures and explicit (often longstanding) recommendations to address deficits. Reasons for not implementing prison NSP include; existing availability of opioid substitute treatment, lack of evidence for injecting drug use, for security and maintenance of order, and contradiction with prison protocols sanctioning drug use. Conclusions: Prison health is public health. Regular research and evaluations of prison NSP in Europe are warranted. Future CPT visits should also continue to assess availability and standards of provision; recommend where appropriate including when opioid substitute treatment is already provided, and in line with broad availability of community NSP in Europe. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ccbc1430802c4fd68febccbf690f828c |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2666-5352 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Public Health in Practice |
| spelling | doaj-art-ccbc1430802c4fd68febccbf690f828c2025-08-20T02:34:19ZengElsevierPublic Health in Practice2666-53522024-12-01810054410.1016/j.puhip.2024.10054420 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe regionMarie Claire Van Hout0Ulla-Britt Klankwarth1Simon Fleißner2Heino Stöver3South East Technological University, IrelandInstitute for Addiction Research, Faculty of Health and Social Work, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, GermanyInstitute for Addiction Research, Faculty of Health and Social Work, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany; Nuremberg Institute of Technology Georg Simon Ohm, GermanyInstitute for Addiction Research, Faculty of Health and Social Work, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany; Corresponding author. Institute for Addiction Research, Building 2, Room 328, Faculty of Health and Social Work, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany.Background: Prisons in Europe remain high-risk environments and conducive for infectious disease transmission, often related to injection drug use. Many infected people living in prison unaware of their infection status (HIV, hepatitis C). Despite all Council of Europe (CoE) member states providing community needle and syringe programmes (NSP), prison NSP are limited to seven countries. The study aim was to scrutinise the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT) reporting of periodic and ad hoc country mission visits to prisons, with an explicit focus on the extent to which member states are/were fulfilling obligations to protect prisoners from HIV/hepatitis C; and implementing prison NSP under the non-discriminatory equivalence of care principle. Study design: Socio-legal review. Methods: A systematic search of the CPT database was conducted in 2024 with no date restriction. All CPT reports were screened in chronological order with the terms; “needle”, “syringe”, “harm reduction” and “NSP”. Relevant narrative content on prison NSP operations, including repeat CPT reminders and any official/publicly expressed reasons for not implementing is presented. Results: CPT reporting reveals limited prison NSP provision in selected prisons visited on mission, with little change in status over time, despite documented evidence of prior observations around absent/insufficient harm reduction measures and explicit (often longstanding) recommendations to address deficits. Reasons for not implementing prison NSP include; existing availability of opioid substitute treatment, lack of evidence for injecting drug use, for security and maintenance of order, and contradiction with prison protocols sanctioning drug use. Conclusions: Prison health is public health. Regular research and evaluations of prison NSP in Europe are warranted. Future CPT visits should also continue to assess availability and standards of provision; recommend where appropriate including when opioid substitute treatment is already provided, and in line with broad availability of community NSP in Europe.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535224000818Council of europeEuropean committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatmentCPTHIVHepatitis CPrison |
| spellingShingle | Marie Claire Van Hout Ulla-Britt Klankwarth Simon Fleißner Heino Stöver 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region Public Health in Practice Council of europe European committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment CPT HIV Hepatitis C Prison |
| title | 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region |
| title_full | 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region |
| title_fullStr | 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region |
| title_full_unstemmed | 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region |
| title_short | 20 years on from the Dublin Declaration: European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the Council of Europe region |
| title_sort | 20 years on from the dublin declaration european committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment reporting on the provision of prison needle and syringe programmes in the council of europe region |
| topic | Council of europe European committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment CPT HIV Hepatitis C Prison |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535224000818 |
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