Can a Prison Practice Good Public Health?

Abstract

This paper provides a description of the health practices that are provided for prisoners in a large rural prison. It takes a model of health promotion using a settings approach to describe these practices and includes descriptions of the barriers to implementing health promoting practices. This paper is concerned only with the health impact of the prison on prisoners, and does not attempt to explore any health issues related to staff. It is also beyond the scope of this paper to consider the impact of privatisation on attempts to improve health in prisons. This paper provides a description of how one prison delivers, or fails to deliver, good public health to its prisoners.