Our Next Seminar will be held on Thursday 11th June 2026, 5-7pm.
This will be a free virtual event via Zoom. Spaces are limited on a first come basis.
To book your space please visit our Ticket Tailor page here.
Speakers:
Professor Rob Poole
Professor Susanne MacGregor
Dr. Kim Barnett
Dr. Amber O’Brien
Dr. Justin Lawson
Professor Rob Poole
Professor Susanne MacGregor
I am an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Professor Emerita at Middlesex University London. I am a social scientist with a background in anthropology and politics, and have taught and researched mainly in social policy and public health.
My interest in addiction has developed since research with young homeless people who had overdosed at City Roads (crisis intervention) in London in the early 1980s. I was Programme Coordinator for the Department of Health Drug Misuse Research Initiative from 2000-2010 and a member of an ACMD Working Group on the Ageing Cohort of Drug Users in 2019.
Dr. Kim Barnett
I am a researcher affiliated with Bangor University and University of Manchester, specialising in prison-based research, substance use, and treatment interventions. My work focuses on improving outcomes for individuals involved in the criminal justice system through evidence-based approaches.
My interest in this field stems from extensive frontline experience as a practitioner in substance misuse and mental health services, working across prisons and community criminal justice programmes in both the UK and New Zealand.
Dr. Amber O’Brien
Amber is a Registered Mental Health Nurse with more than 15 years of post-registration experience across diverse clinical and strategic environments. Her professional background includes work in inpatient and forensic mental health services, as well as roles in practice education, service leadership, and national workforce development. Alongside her nursing qualification, Amber holds a PGCert in Clinical Neuroscience and an MSc in Psychiatric Research.
Amber is passionate about the integral role that mental health nurses play in improving the lives of people with mental health problems.
Dr. Justin Lawson
Summary:
Dealing, drugs, prisons – our concept of ‘dealing with’ is one of reducing harms from drugs, particularly mind altering drugs for people in prison. People who are prisoners ‘deal with drugs’ in quite other ways. To some extent, patterns of drug use and abuse in prison mirror those in wider society, in particular patterns change over time1. Current concerns, however, have never been higher. A recent house of Commons Justice Committee report2 described the trade and use of illicit drugs as ‘endemic’, 16% of deaths in prison as directly drug related and over 10% of men and 20% of women first coming to illicit drugs whilst in prison; two-thirds of deaths within two weeks of leaving prison are drug-related. The most lucrative in-prison drug trade is of illicit drugs but prescribed medication is also subject to abuse.
This webinar explores those tragic, potentially avoidable deaths. It considers the role of prescribing medications and seeking to contain at least the unintended harms if this becomes uncontrolled. It focuses on what prisoners themselves say about managing their drug use in prison.
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50009/documents/269349/default/
https://cdn.websitebuilder.service.justice.gov.uk/uploads/sites/19/2025/08/Substance-misuse-2015.pdf
- Schedule:
Dealing with Drugs in Prisons – What is going wrong? How can we do better?
17.00 Introductions – Professor Pamela Taylor, Crime In Mind
17.10 Learning from unintended unnatural deaths in prisons – Professor Susanne MacGregor
17.40 The pains of rationalising prescribed medicines when men are received into prison – Dr Amber O’Brien and Dr Justin Lawson
18.00 What do the men in prison say? – Dr Kim Barnett
18.30 Developing from these lessons – Lead Discussant – Professor Rob Poole
18.45 General discussion
19.00 Close
Research can transform lives. We want to support discoveries about what helps people with mental disorder who have been victims of criminal behaviour, or perpetrators of criminal behaviour, and their families, and the clinicians and others who treat them and, indeed, the wider community when its members are in contact with these problems. More effective prevention is the ideal, when this is not possible, we need more effective, evidenced interventions for recovery and restoration of safety.
If you would like to become a Member of Crime In Mind please visit our website here.
Membership entitles all Members to the following benefits:
- Access to private members page on dedicated website containing Members discussion forums, document archive and resource libraries.
- Access to recordings of our previous webinars and seminars.
- Free attendance at suitable events awarding up to 10 CPD hours per annum.
- Opportunity to join the Executive committee subject to the conditions of the Articles of Association.
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