The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline: The Medicalization and Criminalization of Pain

The ongoing opioid drug epidemic is the result of an endless cycle in which suffering is medicalized and drug use is criminalized, disproportionately criminalizing the poor for their social condition. Michelle Smirnova's book highlights how inequitable surveillance, policing, and punishment of marginalized populations intensify harms associated with both treatment and punishment, challenging the binary of individual and social problems.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 176 pages
Publication date: 07 April 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline: A Cycle of Suffering and Criminalization

Michelle Smirnova makes a compelling argument in her book, "The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline," that the ongoing opioid drug epidemic is the result of an intricate cycle where pain is medicalized and drug use is criminalized. Through in-depth interviews with eighty incarcerated individuals in Missouri correctional institutions, Smirnova vividly illustrates how contradictions in medical practices, societal ideals, and legal policies disproportionately target the poor, exacerbating their social condition and perpetuating drug addiction and poverty.

By tracing the processes by which social issues are constructed as biomedical problems that require pharmacological intervention, Smirnova highlights the unequal surveillance, policing, and punishment of marginalized populations. This intensifies the harms associated with both treatment and punishment, particularly given the blurred distinctions between the two. Smirnova's focus on the stories of individuals whose pain and pharmaceutical treatment resulted in incarceration challenges the binary of individual and social problems, effectively exploring how the conceptualization, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use can exacerbate outcomes such as relapse, recidivism, poverty, abuse, and death.

This book is a powerful exploration of the complex interplay between healthcare, social justice, and the criminal justice system, shedding light on the urgent need for systemic change to address the root causes of the prescription-to-prison pipeline and promote healthier and more equitable communities.

Weight: 262g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478019695