Occasional Paper No 16 - The Health Needs of Prisoners

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the health needs of prisoners.

It is aimed particularly at organisations concerned with needs of people discharged back into the community and in preventing offending and re-offending.The key messages are:

• Many of the most vulnerable people in our society will end up in prison;

• The best way to improve the health of this vulnerable group is to prevent them going to prison by tackling underlying problems in our communities;

• PCTs are now taking on responsibility for the health and healthcare of prisoners - this is a major challenge in terms of capacity, culture and managing change;

• Appropriate treatment of mental health problems and addictive behaviours in prisoners could have a major impact on re offending.

• Offender Health

• Custodial Centres
• Disadvantaged Groups
• Healthcare and Health Services
• Mental Health Services
• National
• Offenders
• People With Mental Health Problems
• Primary Care Services
• Prisoners
• Prisons
• Root Causes Of Ill Health
• Society