RT Journal
A1 Armstrong GL
T1 PRisoners (should) count—reply
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2007
FD September 10
VO 167
IS 16
SP 1807
OP 1808
DO 10.1001/archinte.167.16.1807-c
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.167.16.1807-c
AB 
The US Department of Justice data allow a crude estimation of the number of prisoners with a history of ever having used injection drugs (“IDU-ever”). Applying the prevalence of IDU-ever among federal prisoners in 19971 to the federal prison population in 20052 and applying the IDU-ever prevalence among state prisoners in 19971 to all other prison and jail populations in 20052 (Table) gives an estimate of approximately 425 000 persons in correctional facilities with IDU-ever. Adding this to the estimate of 3.35 million persons in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population during 2000 to 20023 gives an estimate of 3.77 million persons in the United States with IDU-ever. This estimate has a number of important limitations, including that it is based entirely on self-reported drug use, that persons in jails may have different rates of IDU-ever compared with person in prisons, and that many of the persons in jails would have been within the sampling frame of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.