Samenvatting

This explorative ethnographic study in a Dutch prison focuses on the way inmates with drug problems experience their incarceration, and how that influences their identity as ‘addict’. Respondents describe incarceration as a loss of control over their lives, while their drug problems are characterised by losing control as well. Therefore regaining control in order to overcome their drug problems renders more difficult during incarceration. It is argued that resistance strategies of detainees can give them a sense of control in a short-term perspective. This sense of control could be important for the possibility of changing identity from addict to non-addict during incarceration.