Heterosexual activity of male prisoners in England and Wales

A random sample of 1009 adult male prison inmates from 13 prisons covering short-, medium- and long-term establishments across England and Wales was interviewed about sexual behaviour, drug use and tattooing, inside and outside of prison. We report here on their heterosexual behaviour. Inmates had had a high number of sexual partners compared to population samples. The majority of sexual partners were casual and there were high levels of sexual involvement with injecting drug users and with prostitutes. Prisoners engaged in more risky sexual practices than did the general population and used condoms infrequently. A high number of prisoners had also injected drugs. Inmates reported a high frequency of past sexually transmitted diseases.