Biz in the Pris: A history of drug use in prisons
04 Sep 2025, 18:00 - 19:30
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An online talk on the history of drug use in prisons and creative interventions to explain its dangers.
Substance misuse is widespread in prison settings. Find out about the history of drug misuse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, alongside recent creative interventions to explain the dangers of drug abuse to young offenders and beyond.
Janet Weston will talk about the impact of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and 1990s on prisons and drug misuse. The emergence of HIV and AIDS in the early 1980s overlapped with a 'heroin epidemic,' and put prisons under new kinds of pressure; Janet will reflect on the changes in policies and treatment around drug use that this prompted - and the limits of change, as far as healthcare in prisons was concerned. Janet is a historian and Director of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; her research and publications have addressed histories of mental health, public health, forensic psychiatry, and healthcare in prisons.
Denise Lyons will share the creation of the innovative ‘Biz in the Pris’ project, which involved people who work and live in secure environments in the creation of a comic book about addiction.
IMAGE: 'Biz in the Pris' cover.
This event is open to all and takes place online only.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us on rcn.library@rcn.org.uk or 0345 337 3368.
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For any queries about this event please contact
RCN Library and Museum
rcn.library@rcn.org.uk
0345 337 3368
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Page last updated - 25/04/2025
