Lived experiences of incarceration and release for young men with histories of injecting drugs: Challenging taken-for-granted assumptions

Abstract

This study examined the lived experience of drug use, incarceration and release from prison for 28 young men with histories of injecting drugs. Bacchi’s WPR approach and Rhodes’ Risk Environment framework helped frame results. Findings revealed how criminal justice policies and practices purporting to address “problems” of crime and harmful drug use, in fact acted to produce these very “problems”, and in doing so, exacerbated other harms including further marginalisation of an already vulnerable group.