More than one prisoner in five began to inject drugs while in prison, according to a recently published study.
Drug use and infection with hepatitis C are endemic among the State's prisoners, the study carried out by researchers at the department of community health and general practice in Trinity College Dublin reveals.
The most alarming statistic from a public health perspective is that 21 per cent of prisoners first injected drugs in prison. And 71 per cent of respondents reported sharing needles in prison. The researchers from the Department of Community Health and General Practice in Trinity College Dublin found hepatitis C infection rates of 37 per cent among prisoners. However, hepatitis B infection rates, at 9 per cent, were lower than expected, due to the success of vaccination programmes in the State's prisons, according to the study, which appears in this week's British Medical Journal.
The study, funded by the Department of Justice, looked at 1,300 randomly selected prisoners from nine of the State's 16 prisons.
Drs Fiona Bradley and Lelia Thornton surveyed prisoners aged between 16 and 67 who were considered to be medium or high risk for blood-borne viral infection.
The researchers called for the transfer of responsibility for the prison health system from the Department of Justice to the Department of Health. They also highlighted difficulties in recruiting prison medical staff, with no permanent doctor attached to Mountjoy women's prison or Cloverhill.