Fears over drug use by female inmates

THREE out of four female prisoners are on prescribed medication, which is more than double the number of male prisoners, new research shows.

“Women in Irish prisons have a high level of psychological morbidity and poor quality of life and this mental health profile is significantly poorer than their male prisoner counterparts and than women in the general population,” the report says.

Researchers from the Department of Health Promotion in the National University of Ireland, Galway, surveyed 59 female prisoners, three-quarters of the total female prison population at the time.