Drug and HIV AIDS services in European prisons Prisons are mostly overcrowded stressful hostile and sometimes violent places in which individuals coming from lower classes ethnic and social minorities are over represented. Drug users and migrants belong to these groups in particular. Within the chain of law enforcement options that are available imprisonment is a last resort. Generally prisoners learn about crime in prisons and often without realizing that they become identified as prisoners and consequently recidivism is more the rule than an exception. Prison also affects health of the inmates. Prisons are an area of special concern. In most countries the lower socio economic strata are over represented in the prison population. Prison is a very disadvantageous environment for good health: lack of privacy stress reduced opportunities for social support hygiene overpopulation which all have a negative impact on health. This book is focussing on the health of drug users in prisons. It is an extended and improved version of the report Assistance to drug users in European Union prisons an overview study which has been carried out on behalf of the EMCDDA in Lisbon Portugal. In this publication special attention is given to the harm reduction strategies applied in European prisons. <engl.>