Addictive Behaviors in Imprisoned Subjects

In Tunisia, as in all the countries of the world, addictions present nowadays a problem of public health. Indeed, the judicial system turns to repressive legal ways to fight against this phenomenon, of which the confinement of holders, consumers and drug dealers. Once in the prison environment, what about the evolution of addictions to drugs? To study the influence of the prison environment on the use of drugs, we proceed to a descriptive transverse study with about fifty prisoners and accused for detention, consumption or drug trafficking realized in 2 prisons of Tunis (Manouba and Mornaguia). The data collection is realized during the interview with the prisoners, through a structured index card. We raise the sociodemographic characteristics of the prisoners, the motives for confinement, and especially the drivings of abuse and for dependence of psychoactive substances there. More than 60 % of the incomers in prison presents a problem related to a consumption of alcohol and / or drugs and require adapted care. The prison concentrates the drug users and does not establish an efficient repressive tool of the second recurrence nor the reduction of the risks. The confinement can establish a unique opportunity of screening of a harmful use and/or a dependence whatever is the psychoactive product, to deliver messages of prevention and to propose an adapted care to the needs for the detained person.