Drugs and prisons

Abstract

For as long as it has existed, our Australian society has been attempting to deal with addiction and criminal behaviour. Both crime and the taking of illicit drugs are reflections of the divisions, hatreds and wretchedness that have long existed within our society and within the individuals that comprise it. The prison, as a micro-society, brings the larger problems into an intense focus, with consequent difficulties for those who must administer it. This essay is concerned with those difficulties, their history and their management.