Long-term and heavy drug users make up a significant proportion of the prison population worldwide, as repeatedly confirmed by national and international research. At the same time, it is widely acknowledged that the prison environment is generally not conducive to positive changes in the risk or criminogenic attitudes and thinking patterns of convicted prisoners. Drug addiction or harmful drug use is a factor that exacerbates this process. One way to attempt to reduce the likelihood of re-offending and re-imprisonment of drug users is through intensive prison-based therapeutic programmes that have the potential to counteract criminogenic attitudes and behaviour patterns in participants, thereby increasing their resilience to returning to a criminal lifestyle upon release.
The paper presents the results of a research that monitors therapeutic programs for convicted drug users in Czech prisons and evaluates their effectiveness in terms of their impact on criminogenic thinking patterns and criminal recidivism after release from prison. It compares the results achieved by programme participants with those of incarcerated drug users who did not go through the programme. It discusses the differences in outcomes achieved by 2016 program participants and those in 2022. Finally, it discusses other aspects and external influences that affect program participants' post-release behaviour, including their eventual return to a criminal career.