Managing drugs in the prisoner society: heroin and social order in Kyrgyzstan’s prisons

Slade, G. and Azbel, L. (2022) Managing drugs in the prisoner society: heroin and social order in Kyrgyzstan’s prisons. Punishment and Society, 24(1), pp. 26-45. (doi: 10.1177/1462474520956280)

Abstract

Through the case study of Kyrgyzstan this paper argues that a rapidly increasing availability of drugs in prison is not necessarily deleterious to solidarity and inmate codes. Instead, the fragmentary effect of drugs depends on the forms of prisoner control over drug sale and use. In Kyrgyzstan, prisoners co-opted heroin and reorganized its distribution and consumption through non-market mechanisms. State provision of opioid maintenance therapy incentivized powerful prisoners to move to distributing heroin through a mutual aid fund and according to need. Collectivist prison accommodation, high levels of prisoner mobility and monitoring within and across prisons enabled prisoners to enforce informal bans on drug dealing and on gang formation outside of traditional hierarchies. We argue that in these conditions prisoners organized as consumption-oriented budgetary units rather than profit-driven gangs.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: the research for this paper was supported by the National Institute of Health (R21 DA042702; Meyer, J.; R01 DA029910, Altice, F.L.; and FIC D43TW010540, Azbel, L.) and a European Commission FP7 COFUND fellowship (608829 DRS POINT FP7-PEOPLE-2013-COFUND).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Slade, Dr Gavin
• Authors: Slade, G., and Azbel, L.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Journal Name: Punishment and Society
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 1462-4745
• ISSN (Online): 1741-3095
• Published Online: 23 September 2020