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Prisons and health

(Photo: Istock)

Recognizing the need to promote health and tackle health inequalities in prison settings, WHO/Europe initiated the WHO Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP) in 1995.

At any given time, over 2 million people are imprisoned in penal institutions in Europe. A prison sentence often entails an increased risk of becoming seriously ill or a lost opportunity to recover from an existing illness or dependency. Prisoners who are healthy on entry have a considerable risk of leaving prison with HIV, tuberculosis, a drug problem or poor mental health. Those who enter with a drug or other health-related problem often leave without having received proper medical attention.

Prisoners come from and usually return to the community. Limiting the spread of communicable diseases in prison thus benefits both prisoners and the wider community and reduces the burdens on a country’s health system as a whole.

• WHO Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP)
  

Publications

• Alcohol problems in the criminal justice system: an opportunity for intervention

Countries

• Prison health in Switzerland